"Waiting Times"

I received a letter telling me I'd missed an appointment and so, my details would be removed from the hospitals list. I never received the appointment letter in question. The whole process began after visiting my GP, and waiting about 8 weeks, I had an initial consultation and x-ray after which the consultant referred me for an MRI scan. I attended the MRI about 3 weeks ago but it could not be carried out because of previous surgery I'd had. I was told at the time that the original consultant would be informed and I would hear from him to see where to go from here. I heard nothing apart from the letter yesterday telling me I'd missed an appointment . I called the appointments telephone number, waited for 10 minutes to speak to someone and when I did eventually speak to someone, they gave me another number to call. I called that number and when it was answered, I was given another number to call. I finally got to speak to the right person who told me that I wouldn't be able to get a new appointment to see the consultant until May ! I'm now going to explore the possibility of going privately - I'm not prepared to wait another 3-4 months.