Does anybody have any idea how long NHS referrals take?

[weatherreport]

My GP wrote to refer me to a gynaecologist in February, and I'm still waiting to hear from the hospital or receive an appointment. Is this just standard in the NHS? I'm not sure.
I'm being referred for unexplained abdominal pain, which I suffer from most days.

Depends on the waiting list for your area i think. Im sure when i was referred on nhs there was a period of up to 8 weeks.

I would contact the gynae OPD dept and ask whether your referral has been received

I'm not sure which hospital my GP will have written to. There are two or three possibilities. I didn't realise it could take so long to actually receive a letter for an appointment. It was mid February when I saw my GP.

Is there anywhere I can find the average waiting times for my area? I've searched to no avail.

I'd def ring and check - I've had lost referrals in the past. And if they've got it, they can tell you how long a wait you'll have

does this help?

I was referred to ENT at the beginning of March for an emergency appointment and I've just been seen now. I got a letter from the hospital after I had been referred to say they had got the referral and I would hear from them in x number of weeks.
When I hadn't heard anything I went back to the GP and they phoned the hospital to find out how long I had to wait. The hospital eventually phoned me with a cancellation.
If I were you I would revisit your GP tell them the pain is still there and get them to chase up your referral. I have heard stories where the GP never actually got round to making the referral so I would check there first to make sure it was done.

I'd definitely chase it up, sounds to me like the referral might have got lost. I spent weeks chasing a referral once, back and forth between hospital and GP - eventually some receptionist discovered the letter at the bottom of a drawer where it had sat unnoticed for weeks...!! (At least after that they were embarrassed enough to get me an appointment the next week.)

That seems longer than I would have expected.

Your GP may not even have sent it in? DH went to the GP re seeing a physio and he didn't even make the referral. ONce a GP had sent a referral in he had his appointment within about three weeks!

Get on the phone first thing on Monday.

Chase it, it may well have got lost.

DD got a physio appointment about 3 weeks after referral. I would definitely chase yours up.

Thank you!
Well, I've just searched and it's come up with a possible five places, including out patient clinics, that I might have been referred to. So I'm really not sure who to call.

It's almost 15 weeks since I saw my GP, I was thinking of hanging on the 18 weeks on seeing the link, but I have a horrible feeling no appointment letter will arrive. I need to get some painkillers for this anyway, I've been surviving on ibuprofen, so perhaps I'll make an appointment for those and ask about it then.
I just don't want to waste an appointment slot if this is the time it takes for these things.

Do you know if the referral was being done in the Choose & Book system? Either way I would definitely chase it up.

Sorry - cross post. Can you speak to your GP's secretary? They may be able to chase it up for you or at least tell you where you were referred to.

Yes, just call the Practice Manager at your GP's surgery.

Sorry to hear you are in pain

Ring your GP, or the practice. Ask for a copy of the letter so you know when it was sent. Then chase the hospital.

If your GP has a website the Practice Manager's details should be on there.

You can phone the GP, and leave a message with the receptionists to chase it up and get back to you. If you have an appointment already that you dont have the letter for yet then thats great. If you wait another 3 weeks and still nothing comes then you will feel like you have wasted 3 weeks.

I agree that speaking to the Doctor's secretary/receptionist is the way to go. I recently did this and they were able to look it up on their screen to confirm the date the letter was sent. We have been told that to see our specialist it is a max of 14 weeks!!

Once you know where the letter went - then phone them and ask for the appointments office. I have also had a couple of 'lost' appointments - one for physio where I waited for months before checking and finding the referral had got lost between the GP and hospital, and more recently I checked up another referral (earlier this time) to find it hadn't been passed from the specialist's hospital to the treatment centre..... I wouldn't leave any referral to chance now - especially if you are in pain. Good luck!!

Also thinking about it, im sure got an appt letter rather quick but the appointment was absolutely ages away.

I visited my GP late February and was sent for an ultra sound scan - the GP gave me a phone number to ring if I hadn't heard from the hospital within two weeks. Ultra sound was about three weeks later, when they found that I had gallstones and needed my gall bladder removing. GP rang me and told me I had several options with regard to the operation - after discussing it she said she would send me a choose and book letter. The letter arrived within the week, an appointment was made for me to see the consultant (about another two weeks). When I saw the consultant he said he had no waiting list and could do the operation the following week! In fact I deferred it as I was going away for a fortnight, but I had the operation three and a half weeks ago.

I am sure something has gone wrong with the system your GP is operating, although I must admit I was astounded at the speed at which my problem was resolved. Good luck!

Oh yes, I had an ultrasound late last year and that seemed to take approx six weeks from time of referral to actual appointment, letter received somewhere in between.

I wondered if I'd been tagged as low priority, as the GP now suspects endometriosis, and I'd been offered contraceptive pills which could potentially have eradicated my pain, but refused as we're ttc. I've no idea really.

Thank you for all your helpful replies. I'll give the surgery reception a call next week, see if they can chase it up.

Hi I went to my doctors in december which he said he would refer me gave me details n said phone appt no if not heard after 2 weeks 8 did this and was told the wait is 34 weeks I cant believe it

Any ideas

Ideas for what @Jue1234? There's a lot of people on the waiting list, unless your GP has grounds to raise your case as a priority you'll have to join the queue with the rest of them. Unless you pay to go privately or have medical insurance to cover it.
In my experience, GPs often "under sell" the length of waiting lists (I suspect they don't really know), mine told me "they're usually pretty quick" and it took nearly 3 months to get an initial consultation from a referral, then for a procedure (which i had gone privately, god bless work's medical insurance) the Consultant said she had a 26 week wait for. It's a rubbish situation but the number of people is far outnumbering the NHS resources.