My father has had a very large and extremely painful varicose vein in his leg for a while now. He eventually got his assessment and was told that it would be operated on, and that the waiting list was 6-8 weeks. The procedure was supposed to be a non-invasive heat-based operation to close the vein.
He could hardly wait for the appointment as he is having a lot of difficultly walking and getting around. He is normally a very active person so understandably this was getting him down.
A couple of weeks after being told he was on the waiting list, he received a letter saying that his operation is now being cancelled. The letter also said that this was in follow-up to his doctor also telling him that he wouldn't be having the operation, which is something that never happened - he simply received the letter out of the blue.
He has been told that he can appeal the decision, but he has no idea how to go about this, or how long he will have to wait during the appeals procedure. He is so very desperate to get this operation done that he is also considering going private, which my parents cannot really afford.
I cannot stress enough how much this is affecting his mental state - he is so depressed about it, and this sudden reversal of the decision has felt like a kick in the teeth.
Does anyone have experience of appealing against a NHS decision? If so, what did you have to do? How long did it take?
Has anyone had anything done privately with no insurance? Any good but not-too-expensive private health organisations out there?
Thank-you in advance.