Still waiting for Echo appointment- Anything we can do to speed up appointment?

[Maruni]

Have NC for this as only told close family about DH health.

DH is mid 30s and has experienced palpitations most of his adult life. Had ECG and other tests in home country which came back clear. Recently got worse last couple of months along with some irregular chest pains so GP advised us to go straight to hospital. This was middle of May. Was kept in for 2 nights as something came up on ECG possible arrythmia and HOCM (?), so waited for an echo scan and 24hr monitor. Neither took place due to it being the weekend so in the end they discharged him and was told he would be seen on an urgent basis and appointments for both would come within 2 weeks.

2 weeks came and went so called hospital (finally got through after many attempts) and was told huge backlog at the moment for echos and holter monitors have been outsourced to private company so just have to keep waiting.

Its now been 6 weeks plus and still haven't heard anything. Tried to call again and simply can't get through it just rings out. On top of it all the meds DH was discharged with, Aspirin and beta blocker have finished (1 month supply) GP is no use at all and I don't know where to go from here.

Is there anything we can do to speed up this appointment? I know because of Covid everything has been delayed but I would have thought DH's situation would mean he would be pushed up the queue? I have 2 young kids and this whole thing ia worrying enough... just want DH to have the scans/tests so we can see what's going on!!

Is it worth contacting PALS for this? Never been through this kind of thing before and I have no idea how it all works... any advice greatly appreciated!

Recently I was waiting for an echo scan, ordered by gp due to abnormal ecg and my wait was 10 weeks, appointment came through after about 8 weeks. I got results about a week later and now I'm waiting for appointment with cardiologist, that was 12 weeks ago since I had echo scan. Everything is so slow but if you don't hear I would call PALs if only to found out how long you might be waiting

@WinterWeathercold Thanks so much for sharing your experience. Seems like we will have to wait for a few more weeks then but will double check things with PALS too. I hope everything goes well with your appointment, wishing you the best with it all.

Where I am (North-East) there is a huge shortage of trained eco technicians/cardiac physiologists. This was a problem pre-Covid and so much worse now.

Pre Covid I was referred urgently to cardiologist following significant heart damage caused by cancer treatment. I was referred in March and saw someone in June. Dread to think how long non-urgent cases waited!

Yes @Ikeameatballs I think its a similar situation here (Midlands) there was no one available to do the echo when DH was in hospital over the weekend and the person I spoke to on the phone just seemed totally non fussed about how big the backlog actually is!

My goodness @Bsmirched that's terrible, an urgent referral and a 3 month wait! I'm probably being incredibly naive but it didn't even occur to me that waiting times could be so long! I hope you are doing well too!

My fiance was referred to the rapid chest pain clinic in January (2019 so precovid) and was seen in Mid March - I was shocked anyone could class that as rapid or urgent and complained...I was told his wait was actually very short for cardiology!