Non-urgent surgery - NHS

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 James Malloch 31 May 2020

I’ve a elderly (80’s) friend who has a hernia which is causing a lot of pain to the point where he is struggling to get up and walk, even into his own garden - certainly not able to go outside his house. 

He just had a cancellation letter from a consultation he was suppose to have tomorrow to discuss a route to the operation & recovery. 

He’s normally a very active person (I struggle to keep up with his walking pace!) and good at sorting things out, but he’s also completely deaf at the moment as his clinic isn’t allowing him in to have his ears cleaned out (something he gets done every few months) so he also unable to call anyone to discuss it. I’m trying to sort the hearing out as a lot of private practises offer this treatment so it’s something I can call around about. 

However I wondered if anyone knew more than me about non-emergency treatment & whether much is going on at the moment. Whilst i guess it is technically non-urgent, it is for an elderly man who lives alone and is in considerable pain. I’m surprised that he just got a cancellation out of the blue. 

I live away from him (though he has got people locally helping with shopping etc) & we just speak via email for the time being, but if anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated.

I wondered if private clinics may be operating still, even? Paying to get it treated would cost a few thousand perhaps, but that might be better than waiting for the NHS to get back to normal. 

Ant thoughts are welcomed!

 marsbar 31 May 2020
In reply to James Malloch:

Was he perhaps in less pain when first referred?

They may not be aware of the pain he is in.

I would suggest calling the GP for advice and letting the hospital know he is in pain.  

I have had some success with https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/nhs-services-and-treatments/what...

but I don't know if they are working at the moment.  

I would have thought the ears could be cleaned fairly safely if the person cleaning them wears PPE and your friend wears a mask but I dont know.  

 Neil Williams 31 May 2020
In reply to James Malloch:

MK Hospital has started to restart (!) non-essential operations.  I thought this was the case throughout England?

Re blocked ears try warm olive oil, it works surprisingly well.  They even tell you to do that before they will book you a syringing appointment these days.

Post edited at 14:16
 marsbar 31 May 2020
In reply to James Malloch:

This place is offering online consultations.  I dont know much about it but it is listed by BUPA sp presumably it's fine. 

https://www.hernia.org

 marsbar 31 May 2020
In reply to Neil Williams:

has restarted ?  

(Not a criticism just a suggestion) 

1
 Neil Williams 31 May 2020
In reply to marsbar:

The implication was that they are in a very early stage - I have had a minor operation postponed (impacted wisdom tooth removal under general[1], due to the formation of a cyst in the jaw next to it which could affect jaw integrity long-term but has no short-term effect unless it starts pressing on a nerve) and received a letter about it (basically asking if I still wanted to go ahead or wanted to postpone due to COVID risk) which suggested they haven't actually started doing these operations yet but have now started the process of scheduling them again.

[1] Ask my dentist why it can't be done under local - basically they can't get that corner of my mouth to go dead at all - it seems I have a third dental nerve and they have no idea where it runs to get it with the needle.  My pain tolerance isn't *that* bad, but the kind of "sharp shock" pain you get from dental treatment without anaesthetic causes me to jump in a way that would make it impossible to actually do it safely.

Post edited at 14:36
 marsbar 31 May 2020
In reply to Neil Williams:

Ah now I understand.  

 mik82 31 May 2020
In reply to James Malloch:

This really depends where you are in the country. Locally the private hospitals are all contracted to the NHS for the moment. Non-emergency surgery is restarting, but the throughput is going to be massively reduced due to infection control measures. Unfortunately things are going to take a long time to stabilise and waiting times for anything are going to be very long. 

Contacting the secretary of the consultant he was due to see and explaining the situation would be my recommendation.

As an 80yr old man, there needs to be very robust procedures in place to minimise the risk of him getting covid if he's going in for a non-urgent operation.

As regards the ear cleaning - if done properly (microsuction) this does involve someone being in close proximity for about 15 minutes or so and is also risky.  Again, locally, all private microsuction places are shut, but you may be able to find somewhere that's still doing it.

 arch 31 May 2020
In reply to James Malloch:

My mate is waiting for a Knee op with private health care, it was postponed earlier this year. I don't think he's heard anything lately with regard it being anytime soon. 

My wife needed an Iron infusion six weeks ago and she was told it would be too dangerous to come into Hospital for that. She has just had a blood test at our GPs to see what her levels are and they have fallen in the last six weeks. We're waiting for the specialist to ring. We're hoping she will be able to have an infusion, but not getting our hopes up. 

It's all up in the air at the moment. I'll post up when I know.

 abr1966 31 May 2020
In reply to James Malloch:

Some non essential theatre days are being scheduled where I work....there is a lot of prioritisation going on as the who gets what at the moment....as you'd expect there is a lot of negotiation going on amongst the surgeons to allocate theatre time.

Sometimes its also to do with the availability of high dependency or ITC beds where the surgery takes a long time. Definitely worth chasing and speaking to the GP if it is affecting him so much and impairing basic activities of daily living...

 Paul Sagar 31 May 2020
In reply to James Malloch:

When I was in Sheffield Northern General osteopathy ward after they put my ankle back together on Thursday, most of the ward was empty. So was most of he rest of the hospital apparently. Hospitals nearer the crag I had my accident at blank refused to take me (not sure what they thought I should do with the foot no longer attached to my leg bones). 

My girlfriend was supposed to have private surgery on her ankle the Friday before lockdown and that got cancelled at the last minute. She is still waiting and so far there is no news; the surgery can not restart operations until the government says they can  

From what I can tell there is a huge - and it seems unjustifiable - lag between the covid epidemic initial response and getting the NHS / healthcare back up and running. If we were privileged enough to have a competent government I’d be willing to believe that this was a deliberate policy regarding pandemic control but I rather suspect it is in fact cock up. Some of the nurses I spoke to on Friday certainly seemed to think so. 
 

3
 Dax H 01 Jun 2020
In reply to James Malloch:

I don't know if it would be suitable but you can get ear syringes on Amazon. I do mine about once a month. The first time was olive oil for a few days followed by a gentle slucing out and I was amazed at the amount of crap that came out. 


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