I had my GP referral on 8 Dec 2015 and had my post MDT pre-op diet appointment on 26 January 2017. I checked with the coordinator at my hospital and she said I'm now on the waiting list and just waiting for a surgery date. So I've been on the waiting list 6 months and the overall process has been 19 months. I'm going for a bypass, by the way.
I've emailed the coordinator periodically throughout the process and the estimate for a surgery date has gone from "in the new year (2017)" to "in the Spring" to "in the middle of the year" and now I'm just told that they don't know when my surgery will be.
Is this normal? My hospital is St Mary's, Paddington. I am told they have bed capacity issues and I totally get that and obviously life saving surgeries come before mine.
I'm just finding it so hard to keep patient and carry on because over the months since my pre-op diet appointment I've developed chronic lower back pain. It is massively affecting my quality of life and my GP says this will go with weight loss.
Could people tell me their waiting times please? Especially if they are in London. I think I just feel like that only place I can get info is the coordinator and it's getting me down abit.
I had my GP referral on 8 Dec 2015 and had my post MDT pre-op diet appointment on 26 January 2017. I checked with the coordinator at my hospital and she said I'm now on the waiting list and just waiting for a surgery date. So I've been on the waiting list 6 months and the overall process has been 19 months. I'm going for a bypass, by the way.
I've emailed the coordinator periodically throughout the process and the estimate for a surgery date has gone from "in the new year (2017)" to "in the Spring" to "in the middle of the year" and now I'm just told that they don't know when my surgery will be.
Is this normal? My hospital is St Mary's, Paddington. I am told they have bed capacity issues and I totally get that and obviously life saving surgeries come before mine.
I'm just finding it so hard to keep patient and carry on because over the months since my pre-op diet appointment I've developed chronic lower back pain. It is massively affecting my quality of life and my GP says this will go with weight loss.
Could people tell me their waiting times please? Especially if they are in London. I think I just feel like that only place I can get info is the coordinator and it's getting me down abit.
Having seen a programme on BBC earlier this year about St Mary's Paddington, which included waiting times for WLS, what you are experiencing doesn't sound surprising. Many people had waited a long time and some had been sent home on the day because there was no HDU bed (more than once) as life threatening conditions had taken priority. The surgeons certainly didn't like doing this, and were very supportive of WLS patients. One surgeon insisted on a patient being operated on as it was his third attempt, and had him discharged to the private wing where the Royals go.
I had a long wait (7 months on list) at St James in Leeds as it a a major teaching hospital with a very well respected cancer unit, and WLS are on the same list so get how hard it is as I had been in the process for over 18 months by then with knees that would only improve afterwards.
I did keep persisting with contacting them and at one point they did offer me a transfer to another hospital's waiting list, but it was significantly further away from me -120 mile round trip (Leeds was bad enough) and all my aftercare would have had to be done there too.
It may be worth contacting your PALS (Patient Advice & Liaison Service) who may be able to advocate for you.
Having seen a programme on BBC earlier this year about St Mary's Paddington, which included waiting times for WLS, what you are experiencing doesn't sound surprising. Many people had waited a long time and some had been sent home on the day because there was no HDU bed (more than once) as life threatening conditions had taken priority. The surgeons certainly didn't like doing this, and were very supportive of WLS patients. One surgeon insisted on a patient being operated on as it was his third attempt, and had him discharged to the private wing where the Royals go.
I had a long wait (7 months on list) at St James in Leeds as it a a major teaching hospital with a very well respected cancer unit, and WLS are on the same list so get how hard it is as I had been in the process for over 18 months by then with knees that would only improve afterwards.
I did keep persisting with contacting them and at one point they did offer me a transfer to another hospital's waiting list, but it was significantly further away from me -120 mile round trip (Leeds was bad enough) and all my aftercare would have had to be done there too.
It may be worth contacting your PALS (Patient Advice & Liaison Service) who may be able to advocate for you.
I've been told by my dietician at L and D that once I've seen the surgeon they have to do the surgery within 18 weeks or else they breach waiting times ?
I've been told by my dietician at L and D that once I've seen the surgeon they have to do the surgery within 18 weeks or else they breach waiting times ?
They have to say that everywhere but they don't all hold to it. They are supposed to get fined if they don't, although my hospital according some NHS website had been made exempt because they weren't hitting targets and they were spending more money on fines that could have been put into providing better services!!
They have to say that everywhere but they don't all hold to it. They are supposed to get fined if they don't, although my hospital according some NHS website had been made exempt because they weren't hitting targets and they were spending more money on fines that could have been put into providing better services!!
That makes sense, I have recently been told by a patient at work that if a hospital breaches its wait then the patient has the right to request the surgery be carried out privately, I don't know how true this is but it's interesting xx
I've sent an email to Homerton and will speak to St Mary's about the chance of transferring to Homerton. It'd be great if I could and that reduced my wait (and weight lol).
I'll also speak to St Mary's PALS to see if there's anything they can do.
That makes sense, I have recently been told by a patient at work that if a hospital breaches its wait then the patient has the right to request the surgery be carried out privately, I don't know how true this is but it's interesting xx
I was told that once I was approved for surgery on the NHS that my surgery had to be within 6 months or they breach waiting times but I got the date through in a few months. Hope that helps x
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