How to speed up seeing a NHS hospital consultant after being referred
Look out for your referral letter which should give you the details of your first hospital appointment.
- If it does not arrive within two weeks, contact the hospital, not your GP. You can do this by ringing either the e-booking service, or a secretary in the department you are being referred to, or both. He/she may help you
- Find the name of the consultant you have been referred to, and the name of the consultant’s secretary. Get to know them. They are very important. Check the date that you are to be seen. Ask if there is another consultant in the department that you can see earlier
- Say you don’t mind travelling. For example some consultants do clinics in small hospitals away from the base hospital. Say you don’t mind being seen there.
- If you have been seen, check that you are on the waiting list for the operation, and later check you are still on it. Ask how long you can then expect to wait for the operation.
- Also you can ring the consultant’s secretary every two weeks and ask to be informed if there are any cancellations. Then you need to be ready to have the referral at short notice.
If you do all of this, a 4 month wait for something can become 2 months, or even one month if you are lucky.
Be politely persistent and difficult. Chase chase chase. Don’t assume no news is good news. It’s your NHS.
