Referral criteria and how I met them

Started 3 January 2025 · 15 replies · 162 hearts · read 2.3k times

NualaArmagh, NI · 3 January 2025

1.5 years ago

Starting a thread on this because it keeps coming up in ones and twos: Referral criteria and how I met them

Anyone else here in my part of the world? I would like to compare notes.

The advice I have been given locally contradicts what I have read here, and I would like to know which is out of date.

I would rather hear one detailed account from my own system than five from elsewhere, if anybody local is reading.

I am the only person I know doing this within a considerable distance, so this circle is genuinely my whole peer group on it.

Any local detail gratefully received, however small. The small things are what nobody writes down.

RowanInverness, UK

The waiting list where I am was quoted at eighteen months and turned out to be closer to eleven, so it is worth asking again rather than assuming.

11me too 8

OllyReading, UK

Rowan said something I want to sit with for a second.

Coming back to say I got there, that it took fourteen months from first asking, and that the care since has been good.

VivLuton, UK

My GP referred me and then nothing happened for seven months, and one phone call to the service found that the referral had never arrived.

AdaFacilitatorManchester, UK

Thank you for saying which country you are in at the top of the post. It makes every reply below it more useful and most people forget.

FionnualaDundalk, IE

My pharmacist has been the most consistently available person in the whole system and I would say that to anybody here.

GwennoPwllheli, UK

What I got wrong was assuming a refusal was final. It was a stage, and asking what came next opened a route I had not known about.

8me too 4

RuaridhFort William, UK

Building on what Gwenno wrote rather than answering the original question.

Nothing here is medical advice and local pathways change, so the person at your practice will always know more than any thread.

GwynforLlanidloes, UK

The travel to the specialist centre was the main cost for me and moving to telephone reviews solved most of it.

OrlaithDonegal, IE

My local service was completely different from what somebody thirty miles away described, and both of us were right about our own areas.

GwythFishguard, UK

#10

What surprised me was how much better things went once I brought a written summary. Nine minutes is not long and preparation doubles it.

GwenBangor, UK

#11

I would have written the same thing a year ago, word for word.

IslaOban, UK

#12

What I found is that the criteria vary by area more than anybody admits, and my neighbouring trust had a completely different pathway.

HettieLancaster, UK

#13

Isla — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.

Something practical: ask for a copy of your referral letter. Mine had an error in it that would have delayed things by months.

12me too 1

AdaFacilitatorManchester, UK

#14

I am pleased with this thread. Specific, local, honest about what the poster does not know. That is the brief for this circle exactly.

LarkGalway, IE

#15

I found the waiting the hardest part and the actual care, once it started, entirely good.