Very afraid

[Carys]

......ok, but Fish, is it an 'urgent/two week wait' referral ?

[fishman65]

It is Carys yes, it says so on the letter.

[Lissa101]

Fishman,

Just want to echo what everyone else says, that it's very probable that it's nothing to worry about. However, I'm a long term carer for my mum who has lung cancer (my dog, sadly, was also just diagnosed with cancer of the blood vessels). When life throws up these challenges we think, as anxiety sufferers, that we'll never be able to cope. Which is ridiculous because we're the strongest people around, we deal with anxiety every day of our lives! Life adapts, we adapt and we do cope, somehow.

I hope you both get the reassurance you need soon x

[fishman65]

I'm so sorry to hear that Lissa, you have an awful lot to deal with yourself. And yet you sound so positive in what must be an incredibly testing time for you all. Thank you for your very kind words, there is such a lot of compassion on these boards don't you think? Hope for all of us.

[MyNameIsTerry]

From your post Terry I understand that means the 2 week scale starts again then? Ten days of this hell already, the anxiety has been unbelievable.

You mean if they have to send a 2nd letter to the same hospital? The 2 week would kick in again form that date potentially. However, they should be reminding them this is not a new request and you should take priority over others referred under the 2 week process...but this really comes down to how they manage their customer service and the NHS being a public body are often very bureaucratic so I wouldn't be surprised if you just become a "new customer" which is exactly what I found with therapy and had to complain they were shoving me back down the list when I had already been on it months.

The new hospital will be judged by the 2 week rule because it's not their target failure. The old hospital...will probably just get away with being crap and no one will ever see the service failure if they don't have processes to capture these types of abandoned referrals...again I wouldn't be surprised as the NHS has always had a cover up culture.

I would just keep on your GP's case. They are the primary care giver and responsible for that referral too and GP's often need a nudge to pick up a phone and be arsed to chase things up

[Carnation]

It might be quicker to just make another appointment with the GP eliminating that waiting for the phone to ring or if you are bold enough to go there and plonk yourself on reception until you have an answer one way or another.

[fishman65]

Thank you all, real troopers. OK I got through to the latest hospital and they now have Mrs F on their system. I explained the situation, that the original referral was made on 5th August. She said their waiting time for an appt is about 2 weeks and they will either phone or send a letter. It's a hospital outside our county but no further than our 'county' hospital. I don't think we can get any better than that other than going private but we are poor so that's out. This receptionist was much more on the ball and seemed like she actually cared?

So now it's the next stage of waiting. This hospital is where my step-mother died in January 2000, though she had a very long history of alcoholism. Every morning when I wake I suddenly remember what is afoot. Nobody said life was easy did they.

[fishman65]

OK the hospital phoned this morning and have made an appt for 2pm on Wednesday. I'm relieved that all the what iffing may come to an end. Of course that depends on the outcome.

[jojo2316]

Good luck - we will be thinking of you both on Wednesday xx

[Dying_Swan]

So glad you got it sorted and don't have too much longer to wait. Not knowing is so difficult, and hopefully on Wednesday you'll at least have a clearer idea of what it might be. All the very best to you and Mrs F for Wednesday.