Getting an appointment
Good morning,
I have been diagnosed with CTS by my local GP and wearing the splint at night has not worked and my symptoms are getting worse. she told me to fill out the questionnaire on this site, which I have, and I can get an appointment for the clinic via this website, is this correct?
Kind regards
I live in Herne Bay is this in your catchment area? I am glad you are doing tests regardless as I have symptoms that are far worse in one hand than the other.
Regards,
Josie-May
Yes that's within the catchment. That now presents us with an interesting situation. Where I would like to get to with this system is that your GP can send you to the website and if you score over a given threshold on the questionnaire you can then get an appointment with us directly without bothering your GP again. This woud save appointment slots in the GPs busy schedule and would, if used correctly, actually reduce my workload while still getting most patients with CTS seen quickly. However, we are not quite there yet. In the current contracting system between primary care and the hospital sector we are supposed to have your GPs explicit permission to test and treat you and there is not currently a mechanism for that permission to be given via the website so in theory I should ask you to ask your GP to refer you to me - which is all very clumsy.
The best compromise I can come up with is this. If you let me know who your GP is, I can probably email or call them asking for permission to see you and if they agree we can then proceed. There are a few GPs who seem to actively prefer not to use my clinic for CTS but if they have directed you to the website in the first place then yours is probably not one of those. JB
Excellent thank you. My GP is Dr Didivar at the park surgery in herne bay.
Kind regards,
Josie-may
OK I've emailed Dr D - it took me a while to track down the email I'm afraid - the spelling is Didehvar. I 'll organise an appointment in anticipation of a positive reply but I'll need your full address, date of birth, and if you know it your NHS number in order to send you a letter - you can email these details to me - Jeremy [dot] Bland [at] nhs [dot] net - and I'll get on with it. JB
Thank you very much for your help. I have emailed you all my details.
Kind regards,
Josie-may
I now have confirmation of permission from Dr D as well. See you in February. JB
It depends where you are. As long as you are within my catchment area then the assessment made by the website can be used to refer you to me for testing and/or treatment. Where (roughly) do you live. The probability that you actually have CTS is quite low but at the moment I am still testing people regardless of scores on the questionnaire. JB