Thanks for the clarifications sd & Hallucigenia. I get it now.
servodude wrote:Julian wrote:I confess that I'm not sure what he's referring to with (d). Could someone enlighten me please.
- Julian
Hi Julian
It's explained in a footnote in the image at the start of the twitter feed you provided the url for
- it's for cases where the NHS number wasn't provided/available
Hope you're keeping well (I believe you were getting your eyes looked at)
-sd
Hi sd,
Yes; doing well thanks. I hope you are too.
My eye saga is still ongoing (thanks for remembering!) and, on the topic of Covid, I actually had my plans slightly disrupted by a surprise from the NHS.
When I finally had my initial consultation I was put on what I was warned was a 4 month waiting list for surgery. In light of all the media reports about the catastrophic effect of Covid-19 on NHS waiting lists I took that to mean at least 4 months but I wasn't too bothered because a separate private consultant at Moorfields Eye Hospital (booked by me because of extensive delays in getting my initial NHS consultation) had determined that, on the basis of a scan, my issue looked as if it was resolving although it would be some months before I saw any improvement in my vision. On that basis my plan was to wait until I got the usual month or so notice of my NHS operation date and then potentially cancel my operation if indeed my vision was improving. Well, the NHS derailed that plan by, much to my surprise given the pandemic, giving me a date for the operation about 2.5 months after I had been put onto the waiting list. I had really banked on having more time to see if I was noticing any improvements in my vision so perversely the earlier-than-expected date for the operation was actually unwelcome.
I've ended up going to plan B which is to get a second private scan and consultation at Moorfields where again I was told that there is continued improvement (tissue regrowth) on the scan so I called up the NHS, explained the situation (via an administrator because yet again my consultant was off work due to the pingdemic(*)) and am now rescheduled for another NHS scan before making the decision whether to take me off the NHS waiting list completely and discharge me.
I feel that I'm doing the right thing by the NHS because my initial operating theatre slot hasn't been wasted, I discussed that with the administrator and it was easily re-allocated, and I suspect I will end up avoiding surgery because I am now seeing at least some visual improvements. When I first presented using only my bad eye I was totally unable to use a computer even with the Microsoft magnifier visual aid set to its maximum 1600% magnification. I can now read the screen, albeit with slight difficulty, at 600% magnification so I'm getting increasingly confident that I am seeing real vision improvements as opposed to falling victim to wishful thinking. If things turn out as I hope then it will most definitely have dodged a rather nasty bullet.
I hope my experience of 1 department can be extrapolated and that, despite the doom & gloom stories about catastrophic waiting lists, there are at least some departments in some areas of the country that are still processing elective surgery within really quite reasonable timescales. My surgery probably did count as elective because I was told that either having the operation or living with the reduced vision were both "reasonable options" but I believe the success rate of the operation that I was scheduled to have is somewhat time-dependent so perhaps that got me the date for the operation slightly more quickly than if, for instance, it had been a cataract operation.
- Julian