Hey,

Having a sickening amount of issues with the NHS, they keep losing my papers, forgetting to send things etc etc.
I'm completely done with this faffing around and having to put in formal complaints every step of the way. The surgery etc may be "free" but ive have gotten almost nowhere in the last 5yrs.

Therefore, I have decided to go privately for surgery abroad, and will have to take out a loan to do this.

And should I still keep my name on the NHS waiting list?
I'd still probably get bottom surgery on the NHS because I haven't got the capacity to get a 50k+ loan, but that's a few years off.

Just wondering if anyone else has any experience? Or related advice?

Thanks.

I'm doing facial surgery privately (facial team) - I'm still in theory on waiting lists but I don't expect to actually have any surgery on the NHS.

I will say that bottom surgery shouldn't cost 50k?

Quote from: The_Gentleboy on August 24, 2018, 10:35:22 AM
Having a sickening amount of issues with the NHS, they keep losing my papers, forgetting to send things etc etc.
I'm completely done with this faffing around and having to put in formal complaints every step of the way. The surgery etc may be "free" but ive have gotten almost nowhere in the last 5yrs.

I understand exactly what you mean, the NHS is a constant battle.  It annoys me because it isn't free at all, we all pay in substantial amounts for the service every year but society makes us feel bad for complaining when things aren't up to scratch

Personally, I'd keep your name on the list until everything is done (one way or the other) think of it as a backup plan.  It doesn't cost you anything to stay on and if one day you don't need their services, you can come off then.  In the meantime though, you never know what's round the corner so it would be super frustrating to come off the list and then in the future have to go through those 5 years of aggravation and waiting again

I was under the impression that if you elect private pay for treatment of some aspect of a condition, NHS will refuse to cover related future treatments. If this is the case, it would be unwise to go outside of the system for this surgery at the risk of additional plastic surgeries relate to GD (ie tracheal shave, voice surgery, breast/hip implants) not being covered by the NHS.

I explicitly asked my nurse at the GIC and was told this is not the case.

The NHS would obviously prefer not to but whether private or NHS funded treatment, the NHS will continue to treat you for any complications or future treatments.

Specifically - I started my HRT privately and the NHS took it over, they also did my blood monitoring while I was on private HRT.

My treatment path so far:

HRT (first 6 months): Private
HRT (6 months + ): NHS
Blood Monitoring (All): NHS
Voice Therapy: NHS
Laser Facial Hair Removal: NHS
Electrolysis: Private
FFS: Private

My case is on the NHS at Exeter GIC... when the time came for me to pick a surgeon I asked if it was possible to be seen by a guy who works for Nuffield Hospital which is private... and they didn't even blink. The supervising doctor put me forward for him and within a month I had my first consult at Nuffield Plymouth (December last year). Surgery within 2 months after that. My experience at Nuffield was ...well, I have absolutely no complaints. It was clean, comfortable, and everyone was wonderful to me. I was out again 24 hrs later. 

I'm told they have x amount of funding secured for each case on the NHS and they will transfer it to a private surgeon if there's one available. Seemed part of the routine, from what I could see. They were the ones who suggested Andrew Yelland (private) and another surgeon at Truro (NHS) to me at first, so it apparently wasn't unusual to refer some of us to private surgeons via the NHS. I ended up having surgery with Rob Morris (private) who did an excellent job. Why not research the private surgeons available in the area and ask for one in particular to your NHS supervising doc and see what they say?

Far as I know the only place here in the UK to do phalloplasties is St. Peters Andrology in London anyway, everyone is referred there.