captain clutterbuck
LOTSW Fanatic
Further to my experience with my Mum . As I understand it the Surgery referral goes to the appropriate Department at the Hospital and there is a nominated Triage consultant who considers the request and assesses the urgency of the case and classifies the patient accordingly . With my Mum in both cases she was classified as Routine and so went on a very long list . When you ring the outpatients appointments they suggest you can request the GP to submit further evidence to counter the Routine classification which would again go to the Triage consultant who can approve or decline a change to your status so no real guarantees . In both cases my Mum received letters with a reference number and password which you can use with your year of birth to check on the online referral system to see not only where your application to be seen is but also when your appointment is approved you have the chance to change it which gives you access to cancellations [which you can also do by calling them ] .
For my Mum's ear appointment I did this daily after they cancelled twice as the appointment offered, after the second cancellation was posted, was some considerable time away and I managed to cut the wait time by picking up a cancellation . When I did this for the PCO treatment there were never any appointments. When I spoke to the local patients appointments team they stated they did not put cancellations on the system for general take up but used them internally to allocate on a needs basis . If you ring either the national or local outpatient appointments team [03456088888 is national] and you explain your problem of being referred but not having heard anything they will check and give you your reference/password [after you pas the security questions which are straightforward] and you can check the status of your referral /appointment on the site .
https://www.ebs.ncrs.nhs.uk/login
