Best ENT prof doc in London

[newlondener]

Hi dears,

We are going to relocate to London next month, and in addition to schools, housing investigations we do require a very good ENT doctor since my 5 years old daughter has to be under routine control due to her rare condition in ears. Currently she is under review of the best ENT professor in the country and that concerns us when we move to London. Can I please get your suggestions ? That is highly critical for us and we need reaching doctor directly. So it can be a clinic or etc as I am going to pay for special health insurance package for my daughter. Also in that case, should we have to go to local doctor first ? That's not our preference if possible.

For instance : ?
www.doctify.co.uk/specialist/professor_yogesh_bajaj

There won't be such a thing as the "best" ENT doctor in London - what you probably want is someone who has specialist expertise (sometimes described as an "interest") in whatever condition it is your daughter has. Your best starting point is likely Google - if someone describes themselves as having a particular interest in that condition then they're likely to see a lot of patients with that problem and be up-to-date with how it is managed. The best person might be a professor but not necessarily.

I would ask your current doctor for a referral. That is much more likely to get you a skilled and appropriate doctor. And no doctor is the "best" at everything related to ENT. You want someone with expertise in your daughter's specific condition, and probably someone with links to a major teaching and research hospital like Kings or UCH.

Remember that Harley Street is just an address and any mug with money for the rent can have an office there.

I'm guessing you aren't in the U.K. yet. Healthcare doesn't work like that and private care tends to be for routine things (skipping the queue). London has excellent nhs doctors and following registering with a gp you would be referred if required to a hospital which has paediatric ent, you cannot choose your consultant (they may or may not be a professor as that's an academic title). For the first year the nhs may levy charges.

Harley street is where many of London's private doctors keep offices but unless you have a private gp as well, it's more for treatment than monitoring. I'm sure there's a private dr willing to take your money however the best drs work for the nhs. It may even be your private drs where you live are claiming you need expensive appointments to make money from you, it's common in for profit healthcare.

Agree the best service will entirely depend on which condition she has. And I mean service not just Dr. Audiologists, speech therapists etc may also be v important.
Look at the biggest / best two children's hospitals in London, Great Ormond St (GOSH) and Evelina (both NHS) and Portland (private children's hospital) and you may see which conditions have specialist clinics and who runs them. Few drs in UK are 100% private and lots have Nhs and private practices.

Most health insurance packages will not cover existing conditions. Be careful about that.

ask your insurance if they have recommendations.
the big private paediatric hospitals are the portland and great ormond street.
both have specialist in many fields.
good luck!

Ask your professor to refer you to someone in lon don. In a specialist field they will know each other from international conferences

I would ask your current doc to recommend someone, if her condition is really that rare they will know people in the UK. If it isn’t so rare the international community all know each other then I’d expect any clinician to be able to manage her.

UK healthcare isn’t really set up so that the “best” doctors are professors. In addition those who are often devote their non NHS time to research so don’t do much, if any, private work.

Virtually every private doctor will have an NHS practice and if your child’s condition needs input other than from a doctor you might be better to look at NHS care where the team based structure is much stronger and allied health professionals routinely work together eg. Speech and language, audiology, specialist nurses for family liaison,

This can require quite a mindset shift if you are coming from a different system.

As others have said the two biggest NHS providers for specialist ENT in London are GOSH and Evelina. The teams in both places are strong and many surgeons have private practices. Names that came to mind especially for ears are Mark Felton, David Albert, Dan Jiang & Ben Hartley.

I’m pretty sure that all of the people I’ve named work in the private sector but not everyone good does and not everyone that works privately is good. If you decide to use the NHS then don’t discount someone just because they don’t work privately...i’m not an ENT surgeon but amongst my colleagues

I would be extremely careful. Especially if you have deep pockets.

Your first port of call should be the NHS. You get there by a referral from your GP. Find the best NHS registered ENT specialist.. THEN if you have to wait- see the same person privately. Private is essentially for skipping the queue.

I wouldn't touch a non registered NHS private specialist with a barge pole. They don't have access to the NHS facilities- which are superb when required.

We found a consultant who specialised in our dds condition through a charity set up to support families. They had a helpline and they suggested various options. We were able to go through the NHS.

Google should help you, or are there support groups/forums for parents with children with this condition?