In what time scale does a consultant have to see you after a referral from GP has been received?

Question

A referral which has taken 4 months for the counsultant to receive (and only because i requested it and posted it) has finally been received.

I was informed by the consultants secretary to wait 2-3 weeks for a letter with an appointment.

How quick does the consultant have to see you after the referral has been received?

Thank You

I have heard that they have to see you within 16 weeks for an operation?

Answer 1

I' sure it will depend on the nature of the problem. if you want to express your views either positive or negative regarding any aspect of treatment involving hospitals go to www.patientopinion the opinions get passed on the the hospital staff and actually help effect the way the NHS is run.

Answer 2

This varies over the UK but the Government is pushing to introduce a maximum of a 13 week wait from the time of GP referral to the start of treatment by the consultant. At present the details of this are being worked out.For things that are definite cases for planned surgery the plan is to get it to 13 weeks from the GP letter getting to the consultant to the surgery. It's a bit unclear at the moment how it will all work out for long term health problems and things not needing surgery.
Department of Health website is good for this sort of information although beware of government spin!

Answer 3

It depends how the consultant marks the referral i.e routine or urgent. and also depends how long his/her waiting list is. You might want to look into going private for your first consultation, then if you need any treatment go back onto nhs waiting list.