tranquil_butterfly
Well-Known Member
I had my meeting with Walsall today. I will not bore you with the details but needless to say I am no further forward. Unfortunately the PCT’s and Walsall have been working to make sure they cover their backs so I do not think even going further and taking it to the Ombudsman is going to make any difference.
I spoke to Wolverhampton PCT prior to the meeting and there was a meeting earlier this week with the hospital. They have been told to list patients in strict order and allocate dates. All the PCT’s have agreed new criteria - BMI 45+ and diabetes or BMI 50+ with comorbities. Anyone who is already in the system who have funding but who do not meet these criteria will still have the surgery. For the individual it will depend on whether Walsall has applied for funding. If you do not know if this is the case I suggest you check. As far as Wolverhampton is concerned Walsall have been given a clear instruction to sort things out and they have also promised them money to ensure those in the system at present are dealt with. They also blamed Walsall for failing to tell them there was a problem until the summer.
I got a very different spin in the meeting at Walsall. They said they had notified the PCT’s as far back as January this year that there was a problem and that the PCT’s told them to continue because of the 18 week pathway. When the situation had reached breaking point in the summer that is when they began talking. They are still talking and Walsall have now made it clear they will not be dealing with individual PCT’s and it all now has to come through Walsall PCT as the Lead commissioning body.
As Walsall PCT is the lead body it appears their patients will be given priority and they will then deal with everyone else – and the order will depend on what has been agreed with the PCT’s - I suspect whoever stumps up the extra cash Walsall are demanding will get their patients done next.
There are – they think – about 300 patients who have gone through pre ops and are awaiting surgery including me. Mr Khan will only do 8 operations a week. He has his private practice and will not do any more and they are not going to pay him privately to do them at Little Aston. Miss Heitman is only doing two operations a week – you can do the math – it will be well into next year to clear what they have now and that is provided Mr Khan does not’t take leave and they could not guarantee that will not happen.
Once the 300 are cleared they will start dealing with those who have been put on the waiting list but have not had pre ops. In the meantime they will try to catch up with the backlog of follow up appointments by trying to deal with them in a different way – by handing the follow up largely to GP’s to do.
They are taking on a new surgeon – but the person is not experienced and it will be many , many months before he is trained enough to be left to do the procedure alone – he will basically be trained by Mr Khan and they hope that for the future this will help to cope with the demand. They are also going to recruit a Bariatric Lead to coordinate the whole thing. Again that is for the future. They admitted it will take 2 to 3 years to turn around the service.
They apologised. They admitted mistakes had been made and that it will take them a long time to sort out the situation. The hoped they would be able to turn things around but with the impeding cuts they acknowledged this may hamper their plans to resolve things.
I did encourage them to start being honest with patients about the situation and they said that it had been agreed with the PCT’s that there should be consistent messages given and they are developing their processes to ensure that patients are given clear information. Dr Hartland has been given strict instructions not to give any indication about surgery dates or raise expectations.
GP’s are going to be given new guidelines as to how they refer patients in the future. They admitted that people had been referred and had not fully explored all avenues other than surgery. They apologised for this too, as it meant that people like me who had gone through everything including medication had been left in the situation I am in while others had been given surgery. As well as the new criteria the PCT’s will have to fund their own weight management programmes along the lines of Walsall and that before GP’s were allowed to refer they would have to demonstrate that patients had gone through this programme. So for new patients there will be considerably more hoops to jump through before you get anywhere near Walsall.
I did encourage them to forge some links with the support group. They were not keen and said if patients wanted to voice concerns they should join the patient liaison forum or the patient experience forum. I said having seen the minutes of some of the meetings I was not impressed and what was needed was some input into the actual service being delivered. They said they would explore the possibility of the bariatric nurse getting involved until they appointed the bariatric lead and it would be for that person to see if links could be developed.
I left the meeting feeling very depressed. They said the only way I would be moved through any quicker would be if I became an emergency and if I was that bad I would not be requiring weight loss surgery as I would be deemed too ill for it!
I am totally exhausted but did my best to try and advocate not only on my behalf but for other people waiting too. They were not really interested in dealing with general concerns just my complaint. The issue about whether or not Wolverhampton agreed to fund my surgery key hole remains unresolved so they will have to go back to Wolverhampton to sort that out which is more delay.
I suggest a few others now have a go. I cannot keep fighting this alone.
Apologies for the long post.
tranquil
I spoke to Wolverhampton PCT prior to the meeting and there was a meeting earlier this week with the hospital. They have been told to list patients in strict order and allocate dates. All the PCT’s have agreed new criteria - BMI 45+ and diabetes or BMI 50+ with comorbities. Anyone who is already in the system who have funding but who do not meet these criteria will still have the surgery. For the individual it will depend on whether Walsall has applied for funding. If you do not know if this is the case I suggest you check. As far as Wolverhampton is concerned Walsall have been given a clear instruction to sort things out and they have also promised them money to ensure those in the system at present are dealt with. They also blamed Walsall for failing to tell them there was a problem until the summer.
I got a very different spin in the meeting at Walsall. They said they had notified the PCT’s as far back as January this year that there was a problem and that the PCT’s told them to continue because of the 18 week pathway. When the situation had reached breaking point in the summer that is when they began talking. They are still talking and Walsall have now made it clear they will not be dealing with individual PCT’s and it all now has to come through Walsall PCT as the Lead commissioning body.
As Walsall PCT is the lead body it appears their patients will be given priority and they will then deal with everyone else – and the order will depend on what has been agreed with the PCT’s - I suspect whoever stumps up the extra cash Walsall are demanding will get their patients done next.
There are – they think – about 300 patients who have gone through pre ops and are awaiting surgery including me. Mr Khan will only do 8 operations a week. He has his private practice and will not do any more and they are not going to pay him privately to do them at Little Aston. Miss Heitman is only doing two operations a week – you can do the math – it will be well into next year to clear what they have now and that is provided Mr Khan does not’t take leave and they could not guarantee that will not happen.
Once the 300 are cleared they will start dealing with those who have been put on the waiting list but have not had pre ops. In the meantime they will try to catch up with the backlog of follow up appointments by trying to deal with them in a different way – by handing the follow up largely to GP’s to do.
They are taking on a new surgeon – but the person is not experienced and it will be many , many months before he is trained enough to be left to do the procedure alone – he will basically be trained by Mr Khan and they hope that for the future this will help to cope with the demand. They are also going to recruit a Bariatric Lead to coordinate the whole thing. Again that is for the future. They admitted it will take 2 to 3 years to turn around the service.
They apologised. They admitted mistakes had been made and that it will take them a long time to sort out the situation. The hoped they would be able to turn things around but with the impeding cuts they acknowledged this may hamper their plans to resolve things.
I did encourage them to start being honest with patients about the situation and they said that it had been agreed with the PCT’s that there should be consistent messages given and they are developing their processes to ensure that patients are given clear information. Dr Hartland has been given strict instructions not to give any indication about surgery dates or raise expectations.
GP’s are going to be given new guidelines as to how they refer patients in the future. They admitted that people had been referred and had not fully explored all avenues other than surgery. They apologised for this too, as it meant that people like me who had gone through everything including medication had been left in the situation I am in while others had been given surgery. As well as the new criteria the PCT’s will have to fund their own weight management programmes along the lines of Walsall and that before GP’s were allowed to refer they would have to demonstrate that patients had gone through this programme. So for new patients there will be considerably more hoops to jump through before you get anywhere near Walsall.
I did encourage them to forge some links with the support group. They were not keen and said if patients wanted to voice concerns they should join the patient liaison forum or the patient experience forum. I said having seen the minutes of some of the meetings I was not impressed and what was needed was some input into the actual service being delivered. They said they would explore the possibility of the bariatric nurse getting involved until they appointed the bariatric lead and it would be for that person to see if links could be developed.
I left the meeting feeling very depressed. They said the only way I would be moved through any quicker would be if I became an emergency and if I was that bad I would not be requiring weight loss surgery as I would be deemed too ill for it!
I am totally exhausted but did my best to try and advocate not only on my behalf but for other people waiting too. They were not really interested in dealing with general concerns just my complaint. The issue about whether or not Wolverhampton agreed to fund my surgery key hole remains unresolved so they will have to go back to Wolverhampton to sort that out which is more delay.
I suggest a few others now have a go. I cannot keep fighting this alone.
Apologies for the long post.
tranquil
. They recovered and hence I was able to extract as much as I did from them in terms of information.
