waiting for an echocardiogram....

[newyearnewattitude]

Hi,

I'm a 39 year old mum and about 2 months ago my osteopath noticed an arrythmia and told me to see my GP, off I went and he referred me for an ECG so off I went for that, took 2 mins and the technician sent me off. Then a few weeks later (2 weeks ago) my GP called me at home on a Friday night (about 8pm) as he was looking at the ECG and apparently they had highlighted a left axis deviation and some irregular rsr's(?) which may suggest a possible atrial septal defect but to be sure I would need to have an ultrasound of my heart. Over the phone he mentioned the treatment for if it is found etc and I was expecting to be seen for that quite soon but I still haven't got a date for the echo-cardiogram and the website for the trust says the average wait for cardiology appointments is 44 days!

Has anyone else had this? Is it normal to wait for so long?

Theres a few of us with cardiac issues on this thread I'm afraid that sort of wait time is very normal. At one point I was told by my cardiologists secretary that as my problem had been classified as urgent it would be seen within 6 weeks.
I'd phone the gp sec. ask the name of to whom youve been referred, check the referral has gone off and then phone their secretary, who would be able to give you a better idea.

thank you! I had the automated letter from the surgery with my reference number to call and book the consultants appointment but when I called the appointments line they said they couldn't offer me an appointment in Sept as it was full so were passing my file direct to the consultants to get them to contact me direct... so again it's a case of waiting but it seems absurd that something apparently important takes ages to be checked!

thanks for the link to the thread, I'll pop over and have a good read!

my "urgent" cardio appointment is 4 months from referral, but my echo (done at the local health centre) was 6 weeks, although I got a last minute cancellation in the end. 44 days sounds not too bad (and if it was "urgent" as in "must see you right now this instant", you'd have been fast-tracked I'd've thought. Urgent means something totally different to the NHS I've found )