Baby hernia repair has long NHS wait. Private care?

[merryberry]

We are worried. Does anyone have relevant experience to share?

14mth old DS seen by GP, she says yes, inguinal hernia and refers us to UCH who can see us 13th Novemeber. Even since yesterday the hernia has grown a little, which I know increases risk of serious complications. UCH says no earlier appts available, if it gets worse to point of baby distress, go to A&E.

We don't like to let him just sit around maturing an easily remedied problem. Would our GP be able to check waiting times at other hospitals, or should I somehow?

Have googled private care which we can afford though not currently insured. Seems there is not much private paediatric care as NHS so good with kids usually. Cromwell hospital main choice from what I see. Do we speak to them direct or a health insurer? Would really appreciate some advice, will also try and speak to GP again, aha he's awake, bye for now.

bump

Sorry if this is a silly question but is that different to an umbilical hernia? I'n guessing it is one on the groin, but I don't know...

my ds had this, but we found it when he was about 7 months (dp had one as a baby which did strangulate, so we sort of knew what to look for). from memory, it was about 10 days from gp referral to consulant apt, then op the following week - at royal london in whitechapel.

doesn't sound good re growing, although maybe he was in a position which made it more noticable? ds's was only really visible when he was bellowing.

Thank you, yes it is a groin one, an inguinal one. We reamin concerned about length of time to wait. It looked worse just lying and not crying during a nappy change. Found a paediatrician who can talk us through the likely course of things for 100 quid for 40 minutes. GP cab't do it: doesn't see enough and only has a few minutes at a time. sigh

I think going for a private consultantation sounds like a good idea, especially if he/she is a paediatric consultant who functions both privately and on the NHS..... that way, he/she might be able to advise you, but still see you/your ds on the NHS for surgery. I have an inguenal hernia at the moment (and am 5 mos pg, ughhhh...), and I went to see the head man at my NHS hospital privately (£100 for the private consultation), which has so set my mind at rest if nothing else. Would recommend it. Also, if your ds is lying flat on his back, does the hernia seem to "disappear"? If so, then that's a good sign apparently.... really good luck with it all...

i would go privately if you can do it.

...also, as far as I know from my experience, although a hernia op has a long nhs wait, i think if it looks as though there is a concern that it might be about to strangulate (at which point it obviously becomes an emergency), I'm sure you will be jumped up the list. Don't know about paediatrics specifically though....

thank you for your time and comments. it is still popping back in, and we will whip into a&e if it stops doing that. hope to see the paed on tuesday. will leave a note on how it goes at avarious stages in the future, because when i searched i couldn't find anything to reference.

sorry to hear about that tricky combination orangina - a hernia and pg. i hope all goes well for you.

We didn't see the point of speeding up dd's hernia surgery - it didn't cause her any pain (although it looked worse when she cried and coughed) - if it became an emergency, she would have been operated on immediately and we also thought that she had probably had it there a while before we actually noticed it (because I think it probably started off v small and got bigger!).

I think we waited around 2 months for a consultation and then another 3 months for the operation (though we volunteered to be on the list to be called up at short notice).