Waiting times for shoulder replacement

Hi Liz, is this a hospital referral from your GP? or a referral from your rheumatology consultant to general surgery?

I've found that NHS admin is pure chaos, and referrals can get stacked and then ignored as emergency cases are elevated, so its certainly not going to do you any harm to chase up and then keep on chasing the referral yourself though its work that when you're suffering feels almost immoral that the burden of it is placed on you the patient.

If its through your GP then its worth calling them and asking where you are in the system, same with if its a hospital referral as the medical secretaries can tell you where you are on the list/appointments schedule/system.

Also make your pain known, try not to be put off with the standard comments from medical folks that there are long waiting lists etc as we all know this, but, some of us are in increasing pain and deteriorating circumstances which means its valid to be seen sooner.

Its an awkward fact that many people are left to linger in long waiting times because they accept the blanket response of there is nothing we can do to speed waiting times up, when in truth there are ways of escalating but its based on reported symptom increasing, and increasing pain is one of those factors, yet if no one knows the pain is getting intolerable then they don't have to do an escalation up the lists.

So I would recommend you let your GP or consultant know that your pain is getting harder to cope with and its affecting both your physical health and your mental health.

I was having a bit of a rant earlier today about why is it I can buy something online and it will be here the next day, but trying to collect my prescription from a local chemists and it take 10 working days!!!

I refuse to be reasonable though liz, its 2025 we've all this amazing technology why isn't it working for us, I think you and everyone waiting should be able to log in to an online account that shows your exact position in the referral queue, along with an explanation as to why/how you have been allocated that position and what to do if you need to report increasing symptoms.

My grandmother had Rheumatoid Arthritis she was diagnosed back in the 1970tys when the only treatments offered really were aspirins but at least her consultant ran an out reach clinic at the community centre near her and along with the other patients she'd go once a month and they all had a cup of tea together with the consultant who by all accounts was very charming and good company.

She had better psychological care, support and access than any of us have today, but we're constantly fobbed off with the supposed advancement of better and more effective medication/surgeries as this supposedly reduced the need for psychological care and support, yet we cannot get to them because of the mis-management in how they are allocated and resourced.

I highly recommend letting who ever referred you know that the pain is intolerable for you, who knows you might get some better pain meds if nothing else.