Lack of NHS consultants Urologists in UK to treat NHS patients.

Posted , 11 users are following.

I have had BHP for twelve years and have been taking tamulosin and Dutasterided individually and now both together. during the last 12 months my condition has got worse and getting up 5 or 6 times a night is almost the norm now. I saw a consultant and had MRI images and psa 4.4  and was told he would put me forward for green light surgery. After 6 weeks I saw the consultant who does the laser and he treated me like someone who had just started with BPH and not taken any notice of the investigating consultant who said I was suitable for laser treatment. He put me on Noqdirna at night to stop p roducing urine at night { treating a symtom and not the cause} and then said come back in 6 weeks for more tests. A few weeks later I complained to the first consultant who said he would speak with the 'stalling' consultant and said he would let me know the outcome. THey didnt get back to me but instead a few weeks later got another referral for a third consultant. At this point I told the urologist department I didnt want anything to do with them and am now trying to get referred elsewhere.

I would suggest too many Urologists are favouring private patients at the expense of

NHS patients and its a bloody disgrace. These people are trained and paid for by tax paying citizens and if they want to do private work they should fund their own training and not use NHS facilities. It makes my blood boil. And, I dont agree with the people who say that private patients help pay for the NHS. No it doesn't it mainly rewards private patients and the consultants and nurses., It's a nice little earner for them but they should not be allowed to practise in NHS hospitals at all.

Does anyone else think the same or is it  just my local hospital  which is in south Yorkshire? Can any recommend a consultate in South or West Yorkshire who treats BHP patients reasonable quickly on the NHS.

I note there is a nation prostate cancer uk association and I think there should be the same for the endemic BHP problem as well.

1 like, 35 replies

35 Replies

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  • Posted

    Well said. I think that these consultants should be named and shamed they are a disgrace to the NHS.

     

  • Posted

    Did you ever have the appointment at Newcastle? 

    A friend who got nowhere with James Cook hospital in 2004 went privately for GL PVP then. His prostate may be becoming a problem again. He went to his Middlesboro  GP and was referred to James Cook Hospital and

    this time was welcomed with open arms and had a cystoscopy two days later and then a CT scan and is now waiting to see the Uro.

    • Posted

      Hi Derek,   I am still waiting to hear from Newcastle., my doctor asked if I could be referred as a NHS patient there some 3 weeks ago but am still waiting. I rang the doctors a week ago but no joy or action from them so will wait a bit longer. One doesn't realise how bad the NHS can be in certain areas until you find yourself needing some help.

      It's a waiting game now and I'm taking both tamulosin and dutasteride in the hope that the dutasteride will kick in and do it's reduction job again. But the longer this goes on the less useful the shrinking dutasteride becomes as over the years the prostate just gets bigger. I  know I'm wasting my breath    complaining but I'd like to see a national campaign on BHP and its treatments and a consensus to see how many urologists are doing private patients as a percentage of all patients. I cant understand why there aren't  regional centres of excellence for NHS patients only.

    • Posted

      Many surgeons want patients to keep on taking Avodart/dutasteride  after surgery to stop future regrowth.
  • Posted

    I identify with what you're going through.

    Having the right uro is like finding the holy grail.

    Educate yourself in order to say no to worthless treatments.

  • Posted

    Afraid the same exists in NHS Scotland and getting an independent second opinion is difficult to do, but it is not only Urologists as I am in waiting lists for Urology and Total Knee Replacement which started at 12 weeks, then 18 weeks and then 40 weeks and now they cannot give me an estimate as elective surgery is being stopped around Christmas and New Year, so I am expecting at least a 52 week wait, but as a consequence my other knee is giving in now and plenty of pain plus urine infection again which will stop any decision to do my knee. All this is bad for me, but more expense to NHS and how can I plan my future. Paid all my taxes all my days but it means nothing.
  • Posted

    Glad I live in the USA where we get prompt and good medical treatment, where patients can research a physician's background, and a system of discipline for providers who do not conform to standards.

    • Posted

      " if you like your doctor you may keep your doctor" ", if you like your plan you can keep your plan"

      Things will change here also like the European plan they've tried it once they'll get it next time. Sorry I just hate that we will follow like sheep. Oh yea and they will have there own special plan. Not like what they give us.

  • Posted

    Thanks for all the replies. There's nothing wrong with going private if it was only in private hospitals and with privately trained consultants but with the system as it is, private patients are being treated at the expense of us poor NHS patients and means our queues are getting longer and longer.

    Supertractor,   I commiserate with you and would be tempted to use the nhs complaints system but I always think that could work against you  but you never know.  I think you can get referred to a private consultant if the NHS cant do it in a goodly time. It might be worth writing to the NHS complaints people and ask about this.

    As an aside, it May gets her way she will be giving another 20 billion to the EU and just think how much that would do for the NHS and other public services and then there's the annual world give away to the worlds dictators and the like.

    • Posted

      Hi Breeze, The only way I could get a second NHS opinion was from another Consultant in the same group of Consultants which was no use as he would not go against his colleagues in my opinion. Then paid privately elsewhere for a second opinion from a Consultant who said he could help me when my own one said he could do nothing. He told me to get a referral to his area on NHS, then had to go through Complaints procedure after it was rejected. With my knee, I just can't get a date, so can't plan my life, so now passed it to my Scottish MSP as they are running the Health Service here. So frustrated as met a lady from another area who had to wait only 8 weeks for same procedure which is quite a difference to what is likely 52 weeks. Her Health Area is probably not £30 million in debt like ours !.  As for Prostate removal how long is a piece of string !.

      All I ask is just keep me informed what is happening.

    • Posted

      When I lived in Edinburgh my MSP was the health minister. When I complained about 16 week waiting times for physiotherapy when I had tendonitis he replied that he didn't know the waiting time was so long!!

      I did write to him another time with the head urologists agreement about funding for Free PSA testing having been withdrawn after an trial period. His reply was that the accountants had not thought it worthwhile or cost effective.

    • Posted

      I had a private cardiac procedure this year at an NHS hospital for a procedure that the NHS do not fund at the present time even after successful trials l. I had assumed that they had a separate operating theatre and ward but that was not the case. I was put in a rather tatty side room for the night and got the same terrible food. 

      I had my initial consultation at a private hospital but they did not have the staff or facilities needed. The same applied to the other private hospital in the area.

  • Posted

    I have not had this experience.  I live in the south and have several friends (and myself) who have had satisfactory NHS expeience
    • Posted

      I'm in Sussex and the waiting times are long. Six months to see a neurologist, 42 weeks to see a neurosurgeon. I waited 54 weeks to get my aortic valve replaced.

      The muscular skeletal service (MSK) now privatised in most areas as it was put out to tender is shambolic. GP's cannot refer you directly to a consultant you first have to see an ESP, a glorified physiotherapist who decides if you need to see a consultant or not. This they say stops GP's wasting consultants time as he weeds out 80% of patients.

      If your GP refers you back you have to go through the ESP again. As it is privatised you are not seen at an NHS hospital but a series of very often out of the way clinics. Even the consultants they employ shake their heads sadly if you ask if it is working.   

  • Posted

    The NY TImes today has an article about doctors and nurses from the EU leaving because of the uncertaintly of Brexit.   It reported that there was also a 90% drop in EU medical professionals applying to work in the UK.  So, it looks as if that's part of the problem.

    • Posted

      It is not a problem we will still need them to come here and stay here. We have recruited thousands from the Philippines  over the years and are still doing so. Our local hospital had a recruitment team out there recently.

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