Anyone transitioned/ing in Reading, Berkshire?
Don't worry I won't hunt you down and stalk you, just want to know if anyone is in the area and has had surgery or transitioned with the NHS and if you struggled with funding or your GP?
Basically I was doing everything private with Dr Curtis, been on T for a year now and I'm moving to the NHS for top surgery. I went to my GP today to get a referral to Charring X and he admitted not being familiar with the process, so I tried to explain to him what I needed and what needed to happen. Even gave him a GP information pack.
I said that I would need a letter of referral from him for an initial appointment with Charring, and from what I understand having spoken to Charring, after the appointments are over with and I get the green light for surgery, they would send a letter to my GP and it would be up to me and my GP to contact the CCG for funding etc
The outcome was him saying he would have to contact the CCG first to see if they will fund my first appointment to Charring, and how much they will fund me after that. He will then contact me via post once they get back to him.
...and that's it, he then explained how they might refuse, and asked me what my plans are if they did etc and kept going on about this refusal...which was annoying because of course I was already aware there may be a chance I won't get funded, but honestly all I wanted was that first appointment at Charring before I had to worry about it, now I'm just stressed that everything is set in motion to snowball into a long process of disappointment.
This seems a little backwards to me though? Is this right? I was under the impression from everyone I've spoken to that the contacting CCG part comes after everything else? Anyway, this might be a good thing but to me it just seems like I will now have to wait longer before I can even get a first appointment.
