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Original poster

13 week wait to see a consultant

31 replies

Yorkiegirl · 13/04/2006 15:36

To get a definite diagnosis of glue ear for DD2. And then a wait to have the grommet op.
She screamed all night last night.
And has thrown up several times with the pain.
I am so tired. I can't go on like this for 13 weeks
Other alternative is to take her to A&E and try and get them to admit her. But I know they won't. she is in so much pain

OP posts:

Northerner · 13/04/2006 15:40

Oh YG. That is terrible. 13 weeks to wait?

My ds had grommets, and I hate to tell you but the specialist will try other options first before reccommending grommets, think it was about 6 months with ds. Including 4 months of 'watchful waiting' followed by 6 weeks of antib's.

jabberwocky · 13/04/2006 15:40

OMG, yorkiegirl! I don't know what to say I don't know anything really about glue ear but does putting sweet oil in with cotton and then a heating pad help at all? I would be sooo tempted to take her to A&E as well. Is there any chance of hearing loss from having to wait?

Original poster

Yorkiegirl · 13/04/2006 15:41

she has been on antibiotics for the last month anyway. Now she has to start decongestants. One ear is actually looking worse, even tho she has been taking abs

OP posts:

jabberwocky · 13/04/2006 15:44

Okay, this may be a little far out for you, but have you thought about acupuncture for the pain? Is she old enough not to freak out about the needles?

Northerner · 13/04/2006 15:44

Is she on oral anti b's or ear drops?

spacecadet · 13/04/2006 15:45

unfortunately 13 weeks is about the norm in fact its pretty good for ent, there is an alternative, i dont know how you are financially, but its possible to pay approx 100 pounds to see a consultant privately, after that private appt, you go back under the realms of the nhs care, but it means your dd could be seen in a couple of weeks.

Original poster

Yorkiegirl · 13/04/2006 15:45

oral once a day anti bs.

OP posts:

jabberwocky · 13/04/2006 15:46

Perhaps A&E could change her to a different med?

Northerner · 13/04/2006 15:48

Ask for ear drops, ds's ent specialist said oral anti b's should never be prescribed for glue ear as they are simply not effective. But GP's don't like prescribing them, mine would only do it with letter from specialist so bit of a catch 22 for you possibly...

Original poster

Yorkiegirl · 13/04/2006 15:50

I asked about ear drops and GP was dismissive.
Have just made an appointment for her to see a cranial osteopath. Got to be worth a go.

OP posts:

Northerner · 13/04/2006 15:53

Apparantly the ear drops are quite strong and meant for adults, hence why GP's don't like prescribing them.

Good luck with the cranial osteopathy, I tried it with ds too.

Have you cut out cows milk?
Does she drink while laying down?

Original poster

Yorkiegirl · 13/04/2006 18:23

Haven't cut milk out yet, wanted to wait and see the ENT consultant first, but it might be a good idea seeing as the wait is going to be so long.

OP posts:

Original poster

Yorkiegirl · 13/04/2006 19:36

just sent an email to my MP asking if he thought that it was acceptable to make a 2 year old wait over 3 months to see a consultant when she is in considerable pain!

OP posts:

chapsmum · 13/04/2006 20:44

Yorkie, phone the consultant secretary, explain the siuation and ask her to trawl the books for a cancelation

Original poster

Yorkiegirl · 14/04/2006 10:59

I don't actually know which consultant we have been referred to yet. Once I do I will start all that

OP posts:

Heartmum2Jamie · 14/04/2006 11:19

I agree completely with Spacecadet. 13 weeks is actually pretty good going for an ENT, but I do agree that it is terrible that they don't have a fast track system for such young children. My son was refered for food allergy tests back in November by his dietician. We would still be waiting now for an appt, but decided to find a private paed (who thankfully specialises is food allergies). Ds has now been an a strict elimination diet for 6 weeks and is no longer in any pain or discomfort and we now attend his NHS clinic. It is expensive, but well worth it in my opinion.

Original poster

Yorkiegirl · 14/04/2006 11:20

how do I go about getting a private appointment?

OP posts:

Heartmum2Jamie · 14/04/2006 11:26

It would be worth ringing your local hospitals main switch board and asking if they have a private clinic attached to or as part of the hospital (mine does) or perhaps try your local health authority, they should be able to give you some indication to who does private work as well as NHS. There is also a website where you can look up paeds names from you area or hospital and see that way if they do private work.....just let me see if I can find it.....

Heartmum2Jamie · 14/04/2006 11:37

Got it! It's www.specialistinfo.com

I hope this is helpful to some of you. You can bring up lots of basic info, including waiting times. If you want to look at the consultants specialities, then you have to pay. A 2 hour slot is £2.99. I know that I must have spent more than that on many worthless telephone calls, trying to get the same info I found on this site.

There is also www.bsaci.org/clinics/UK for free information on where members of the professional body have clinics.

You will need a referal letter from your GP in most cases. With my ds, I found the priavte paed consultant, made an appt and then went to my GP and asked for a referal letter (about £10). Alternatively, you can go to your GP and ask him/her to refer you to a private consultant, after all, he should know how they are, this may take some of the running around out of it for you. I can sympathise that you just want your DD to be seen, I remeber the feeling well. Hugs

foxinsocks · 15/04/2006 19:33

yorkie, we have just been through this with our dd (age 5.5). Her hearing was badly affected and she was having quite a bit of difficulty at school. She was playing in the road (we live in a cul de sac) while I was watching but when I shouted for her to move out of the road because a car was coming, she didn't hear :(

Gp wrote a referral letter stating that the problem was wax in her ears (we always thought it was more than that) and actually apologised for referring us for such a trivial matter :(. We phoned for an appointment and were told the absolute earliest would be a 4 month wait.

I looked up local private hospitals on \link{http://www.drfoster.co.uk/localservices/objectlist.aspx?w=25\dr fosters} and then checked where the consultants worked (to make sure they did NHS work as well as private work). We managed to get an appointment within 4 days. It cost £120 for the appointment (we're in London so may be cheaper if you're not). He removed the wax and did a hearing test (additional cost) which confirmed our fears - her hearing was badly affected. We told him we had wanted to be treated on the NHS but were so worried about her hearing, we had to see him sooner.

He will treat her now on the NHS - we go back to the beginning of his list and he will retest her hearing when the appointment comes up and if there is no improvement, she will then go on the list for the op.

I honestly think that the only way to sort it out is to see someone privately first - but as others have said, 13 weeks is actually not too bad a waiting time unfortunately.

SueW · 15/04/2006 19:40

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at OP's request.

foxinsocks · 15/04/2006 19:43

I should have said, I also could not stomach watching her in pain anymore. Although the doctor has not actually done anything to make her ear any better yet (I think only the op will do that), at least we know what we're dealing with and we all (including dd) feel more positive.

It really was worth paying for the private appointment. On some private hospital sites, it will quote you a figure to have the op done privately as well if you want to investigate that.

When we were debating whether to go for a private appointment, one m-netter (can't remember who, may have been WWB) said that it's better to get them seen now as this is when it is at its worst because often in the summer, it improves slightly only to get worse again next winter.

SueW · 15/04/2006 20:07

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at OP's request.

Original poster

Yorkiegirl · 15/04/2006 20:14

that's for the op tho and not just an appointment with the consultant

OP posts:

tribpot · 15/04/2006 20:20

Yorkiegirl, if this was a new referral from the GP, you should have been offered a choice of where to go, and this should (I do stress should) allow you to find out if there is another service somewhere near-ish by with a shorter waiting time. I assume you've seen the GP recently? Do you know for sure it's a 13 week wait or is that the worst case scenario? (Not that it's acceptable either way, I might add)

Having said all that, I would pursue a private appointment as well. You can simply ask your GP if the ENT consultant does private work (that's what I did with dh and the pain clinic where we used to live), he (or she) is not going to tell you off for wanting to look at options outside the NHS. Equally check out your nearest Nuffield or BUPA hospital and see what they have to offer - more than likely that'll be where the NHS consultant does his/her private work.

I had glue ear as a child and fortunately don't really remember the pain parts, just the operations to have grommets. But I have an absolute terror of ds having the same problem, having heard my mum's description of what it was like when I was like your dd2 :( You have all my sympathy and I hope you can see someone soon.

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