Time from referral to SRS

[Christine]

I guess this is currently a "how long is a piece of string?" questions given the recent upheaval, but does anyone know what sort of wait I can expect from referral to SRS actually happening?

I've my second SA on the 12th of June with Dr Lorimer. As Steffi pointed out to me a while back, this should really just be routine as Dr Barrett has tentatively given his approval pending further weight loss which has now happened (BMI was fine, waist measurement wasn't) so hopefully I'll get both signatures that day or thereabouts.

And then there's the waiting. I think estimates prior to Mr Bellringer's resignation were 10-15 months in total, but it seems that the consensus is that there may now be an additional 3-6 months on top of that. Which is potentially a very long time.

What concerns me (and I may not understand this correctly) is I seem to remember hearing something along the lines of being recalled to the GIC and taken off the waiting list if SRS hadn't happened within 12 months of being referred, which could potentially make it impossible to get to the front of the queue if true. Anybody know about this?

Also from other accounts I've read, I should maybe consider myself "fortunate" if I do get referred in June as I'll have "only" been at CX for two years by that point: it seems some others have been waiting a lot longer.

The other thing that concerns me is that it seems to be standard practice for the admin team to lose the paperwork instead of sending it to the hospital. This I can well believe because they've had a less-than-50% success rate sending out letters I should have received. Is there anything at all I can do to help avoid this happening? I'd be happy to act as the courier myself but I suspect the chances of me being given a copy of the relevant letter/notes/whatevs are pretty slim and it'll probably just add another step where they can be lost.

[Jane_D_C]

In my case it was almost a year...10 May 2012 referral , 22 April 2013 surgery. The only one who was able to give me a sensible prediction was Mr Bellringer when I saw him on 1 October 2012. The shrinks under-estimated times woefully. Not only was this annoying, but it made me look incompetent to my boss, who was not impressed by the continual delays.

Jane x.

[Christine]

Thanks, Jane. At least that gives me a very rough idea what to expect; and it seems that's a lot more than I'm going to get officially!

The latest news is that the new surgeon's not going to start taking on work until September. In the intervening time she'll apparently be trained by Mr Thomas who'll be keeping up his one-day-a-week schedule. I've picked up various bits and pieces about patients being given the option to have their surgery done privately, but whether that's the new standard or just a special being offered to those with existing appointments is anyone's guess. I think they could do a better job of communicating things to people...

[Jane_D_C]

You could always try getting an NHS referral to either Mr T at Brighton (he accepts them - waiting list 2-3 months, and he is cheaper than ChX) or to Mr B at Parkside Hospital. His NHS waiting list there is if anything likely to be shorter because he needs to build up a practice.

Mr T's phone number at Brighton appears at http://www.nuffieldhealth.com/hospitals ... nt-surgery .

Mr B. can be found via http://www.parkside-hospital.co.uk/cons ... bellringer

Jane x.

[Christine]

Thanks, Jane! I still need my 2nd SA, eight weeks tomorrow, so I'll have to see what happens then. I'd rather be in Brighton as I like it there and I'm not such a fan of London. "(S)he who is tired of London is tired of life", as the quote goes, but there's more to life than London. Such as potatoes, curry, beer, chocolate and video games.