After 11 weeks since my doctor filled in a form to refer me for NHS physiotherapy on my stupid runner’s knee (aka tracking problems of the patella femoral joint) and 11 week of me hearing nothing I thought I would ring my doctor to get a bit more information about what is happening.
The phone number was engaged to the point where even their holding queue system wasn’t answering! After ringing back five times I finally got through to a holding queue, they don’t have holding music as that would require a licence so it is silence punctuated every few minutes by a computerised woman’s voice saying “you are still queuing”.
(Photo from HowStuffWorks)
It might be my imagination but she sounds rather put out that I am still on the line after 20 minutes.
After a few more minutes of silence I get through to a real person, she is helpful and explains to me that the referral forms are still in the practise!
The process is the practise puts all the referral forms in a room in date order and once a month the NHS Trust tells the Practise how many referrals they can send. At which point the Practise goes to the pile and takes the oldest forms off the pile and refers those.
So technically I have not yet been referred, the nice lady explains that it is at least three months until you get to the top of the pile!
(Photo from The Sunday Times)
She couldn’t tell me where I was in the pile – because at my doctor’s they put the forms in the attic which only the Practise Manager has a key to and the Practise Manager is on holiday for a couple of weeks.
So if I am very lucky I might be in October’s referrals allowance, or November’s or the attic may have eaten the forms. It might be that I’ve seen too many horror movies but nothing good is ever hiding in the attic…
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