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please tell us the truth re waiting list times

Posted By Hippie

"please tell us the truth re waiting list times"

About: Chase Farm Hospital / Trauma and orthopaedics

(as the patient),

I had an outpatients appointment with a consultant at Chase Farm at the end of January and was told that I would be put on the 'urgent' list for a hip replacement.

I was advised by the consultant that the waiting list 'wasn't too bad' and that I would have to wait between 8 - 10 weeks for a surgery date.

Due to external circumstances / extreme pain, I decided not to use the NHS but to have the op done privately. It was done in February. When I phoned the Appointments department to cancel my place on the list, I was told that the waiting list for hip replacements was 'horrendous'.

When I asked how long I would have had to wait had I had the op done on the NHS, I was told a minimum of ten months and probably longer, and for some surgeons, well over a year.

Patients should be told the truth re waiting list times to enable them to make informed decisions re their own well-being.

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Responses

Response from Chase Farm Hospital 10 years ago
Chase Farm Hospital

Submitted on 10/06/2013 at 09:59
Published on nhs.uk on 06/01/2014 at 05:13

As an organisation we are committed from learning from specific issues and from any mistakes we have made. Hearing about where we can do better helps us to pinpoint where exactly to make improvements to the service we provide. The Trust apologies for the poor experience that you had in accessing our elective orthopaedic services. Unfortunately, demand for our orthopaedic service is high and we have a lengthy waiting list of patients awaiting inpatient care. We are working hard to reduce the waiting times for all our patients by introducing a backlog initiative and also offering patients the option to transfer to a Consultant where waiting times may be shorter. Please contact the Trust on bcfpals@nhs.net if you wish to provide your details and get a more detailed response from the business manager for orthopaedics

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