was told eight weeks ago that my referal would take four weeks

[Council]

I'm a runner, so the problem was at least partly self inflicted. I have an incredibly painful foot which wasn't responding to (private) treatment and the osteopath suggested I ask GP to arrange a scan. He said there was nothing further he could do for me and to continue seeing him would be a waste of money.

The worst pain is in my foot but the suspicion is that the problem is in by back or hip.

I haven't run for six months and when I saw the GP I could barely walk , it was really affecting my daily life, not just preventing me running. e.g. at work the toilet is a short walk down the corridor and I would put off going because of the pain.

Anyway, GP was unable/unwilling to refer me directly for a scan without me having a telephone consultation with the muscular skeletal department at the hospital. That was going to take four weeks, but 8 weeks on I haven't heard anything.

Meantime the foot is improving. I can walk with a manageable level of pain now but am still miles away from being able to run. My back and hip is still sore, although I'm not in any agonising pain, there's clearly something not right.

So, in my shoes, would you chase up the appointment or wait for things to continue to improve on their own?

I would chase it up anyway just in case something has gone amiss

I would chase it up as well - this is one of my recurring issues with the NHS, knowing when to chase and when just to wait. Because you've no visibility of what's happening between different parts of the NHS, you've no idea if the GP has actually sent the referral to the hospital department, or if they've received it but it's never been put on the system, or if actually your GP's estimate of how long it would take for you to hear was wildly wrong.

The only way for you to find out is to phone and thus feel you are wasting the service's time, but at some point you don't have any choice. You could try the hospital's PALS team first, they might have access to information about waiting times for individual services, which would save bothering the consultant's secretary directly.

Oh I know if I still want the appointment I need to follow it up. What I meant was, as the pain is improving, would you leave it?

Ah - well, in that case too I would still chase it up. Whilst the primary injury may be improving, without knowing more you could end up doing more long-term damage. Particularly if you start running again, as I'm sure you must want to.