Waiting for surgeons appointment

It is normal to wait 3-4 weeks, more sometimes, to hear about an appointment. I will see if I can find out anything. EK

I have delivered a second copy by hand to patient service centre today. Please let us know if you don't hear from them soon. If you would like to contact then direct you can do so on 01227 868686. EK

Thank you very much Emma

Hi
This enquiry is for Dr Bland. I visited you on 07/01/16 and had the Carpal Tunnel tests and a scan. You diagnosed a severe case and the nurse said if grades went higher than 6 it would be 7! You said you would refer me to Mr Smith the Hand Consultant at QEQM. I hadn't heard anything and had the previous discussions with Emma. Since then I had a telephone call from the appointments department and they have made me an appointment with Nikki the Hand Specialist in the Fracture Clinic at Canterbury. On further investigation I was told the appointment was for her to decide what treatment I would need. I am a bit confused as you ruled out any other treatment and said surgery was the only treatment and there would only be a 50% chance of it working, as you can understand I don't really want to waste time going to see a specialist who in the end refer me for surgery with Mr Smith as the pain and movement is getting worse and I am right handed and can't carry out every day tasks even carrying a cup of tea! I would appreciate your opinion on this matter. Sorry I have contacted you on this site but I have no other means of contacting you.
Many thanks..

I'm sorry this is a bit confusing and I think it largely stems from the practice of using the same appointment letter for every patient. NIkki runs the hand clinic along with Mr Smith so unless one of them happens to be on holiday there is little difference whose name is on the letter or what it says about what will happen because it is just a generic form letter - like my own EMG appointment letter which is much the same whether the patient has an injured ulnar nerve or motor neurone disease, even though the tests done will be very different. Another issue is that the booking and administration of most clinics is done by people with no medical knowledge of the cases they are dealing with at all so when you talk to someone in the admin system about an orthopaedic appointment it is unlikely to be anyone who knows much, if anything, about orthopaedics.

In your case we could have just put you on the list directly for surgery but you have the complicating factor of the ganglion cyst sitting under the flexor tendons so I thought Mr Smith ought to have a chance to think about that rather than just finding you on the operating list one day with that odd finding in the EMG report. I don't think there is much alternative to operating on this but the unusual anatomy might influence exactly who gets to do the surgery (they are not all listed for the consultant) and possibly the anaesthetic used - definitely something for the surgeon to ponder while planning the operation. The people who made the appointment will not be aware of any of this but Nikki understands the issues well.

When is the appointment for? I'll try to make sure things happen as planned. JB

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Thank you Dr Bland I was just a bit anxious but thank you for the explanation it all makes sense now. My appointment is for 23rd February at 3.30pm.
Once again thank you and for the quick response, I find this website excellent.