Doctor Referral

PopTarts

I went to see my GP a month ago and he told me he was sending / faxing a letter to a consultant in my local hospital.

I'm living in Dublin.

Does anyone know how long I should wait before it's acknowledged or before I get an appointment letter.

I understand I'll be waiting but I want to make sure the fax was received.

St James hospital seem to mention here 10 working days which have passed a couple weeks now.

http://www.stjames.ie/Patients/Hospitalappointments/

Breezer

How long is a piece of string, to be perfectly honest. Your question is totally reasonable but unfortunately very difficult to answer in the context of Irish hospitals, as there really isn't any consistent standard. My advice is to ring the secretary of the consultant/department you were referred to and confirm it was received. If your GP deemed your problem to be very urgent, you may also want to flag it to him/her, though I'd speak to the secretary in the hospital first so you know where you stand.

Furthermore, you're likely to get at least one "waiting list validation" letter at some stage, asking you to confirm you wish to remain on the waiting list. I would advise you to follow this up a week or two after you've returned it, to ensure you are in fact still on the list. This applies regardless of whether you followed the instructions to the letter, or indeed if you hand delivered it to the hospital, as neither of those things seem to make any great difference in my experience.