"Wait of nearly 12 months for my first appointment"

I've found it very difficult to give a simple review as there are very good and very bad things to mention.

My GP referred me as a result of bad lower back pain and sciatica. I was given an MRI scan almost immediately but had to pester my GP to actually get the results, eventually getting the results some two months later. This showed three prolapsed disks in my lower spine. Obviously this delay was not your fault.

However he then referred me on to MK Hospital and I had my first consultant appointment nearly twelve months after the MRI scan. During that time my back got steadily worse and eventually my daughter who works in Paris referred me to her French GP. He referred me for an MRI scan which was done the next day (Saturday) and then on to a spinal surgeon on the following Monday. He referred me on to have a steroid injection in the spine on the same day, which gave an enormous relief of the pain. All this took place a month before my FIRST NHS consultant appointment. When I got to see the NHS consultant at MK hospital he couldn't have been nicer or more efficient, organised an immediate X-ray which was on his screen ten minutes later. He thinks that surgery is the best option, especially as I've already had steroids, but I still, more than a month later, haven't had a letter offering the surgery.

In my experience, when the NHS works it works very well, but when it fails it fails very badly. Non-life threatening conditions such as mine can easily fall through the cracks leaving patients in pain and struggling with their lives for many months on end. This is seldom due to the medical staff who, without exception have been wonderful, but there seems to be some sort of institutional malaise which gives rise to the sort of ridiculous delays which I have seen.