Best ranked hospitals.

hi

welcome to the online community sorry you've had to come and find us

https://improvement.nhs.uk/documents/2988/Q4_ranking_agency_spend_final.pdf

https://www.cqc.org.uk/what-we-do/services-we-regulate/find-hospital

there's a couple of links

you can talk this through with your GP

Our local hospital is very good with colorectal but not great with breast cancer so I was referred to the Royal Marsden in London but I didn't get great treatment there. Hand on heart I wouldn't recommend it. It's very busy because it has the reputation but that seems to be part of its problem. 

We did start a thread here about how people felt about the care they'd had, let me find it.

Carolyn

xx

Thanks, yes there is a bit of info. there but we are simply trying to compare how long people are waiting for their operation, the US sites all seem to stress the importance of the time from diagnosis to operation but yet it seems very hard to actually find those specific details here in the UK just generalised figures. We have three hospitals within easy travelling distance and simply wanted to know which could operate the soonest. I thought it would be quite easy to find this data but its proving impossible, in fact its far easier to find out information relating to electricians and plumbers - but we doubt they'll be of any use.

Thanks again,

Tim.

hi Tim

nice to see you're keeping a sense of humour, I had pretty much a stand up fight with my surgeon over waiting times, not particularly bright of me I know, but I was initially 'only' diagnosed with DCIS, which is stage 0, before the cells have become invasive, and I kept being told I wasn't urgent. So I pointed out in their glossy brochure that they claimed everyone was treated as 'urgent'. 

I was originally seen in 2012 and that mammogram was reported as 'clear'. Just that, nothing else.  Then I went to see the GP dozens of times over the next 3 years and kept getting told it was my age and hormones, but when I had a premonition I wouldn't see Christmas I booked a private screening and had excellent care from a top notch radiologist, who pointed out it clearly had been there when he looked at the 2012 scans. It had been about 15mm-20mm in 2012 but had increased to 65mm-75mm by 2015. He showed me and talked me through it, and luckily for me he also reported the subsequent MRI that was sent to London, he picked up a second suspicious area which they failed to do. If I hadn't queried it I actually wouldn't have seen Christmas 2015. Bizarrely when I went for the results of the biopsy from May 8th the team were literally all smiles, it was 'only' DCIS and I'd 'only' need a mastectomy. I cannot tell you how much that messed with my brain but now I can see why they were delighted to be giving me, what, to them, was fantastic news. 

I was very lucky indeed that it hadn't spread in that three year period.  Age makes a difference to how urgently they react, cells mutate quicker I suppose. Everything happens quicker when you're younger. 

The hospitals themselves may have the data but it might be kept to prove they're meeting the waiting times, which I think is 30 days, I now can't find that piece of information. But you should always be seen under the 2 week rule which I presume you were. 

Even then my private screening was booked in April but I didn't actually attend until May 8th and wasn't seen in London until the 1st June, with surgery, post standoff, on 1st July. I thought I was an exception but some hospitals are definitely better than others. 

You could always try asking here, which are the three hospitals in your area ? I'll rack my brains and see if I can remember where some of lovely peeps on here were treated and summon help. 

How old is your wife ? 

Carolyn

xx

Hi Carolyn28

Was this what you were looking for re cancer waiting times?

x

Hi

Each Hospital usually has a PALS office Patient Advice and Liaisons Service.

I would apply for the Infomation under Freedom of Infomation Act

Also will deall with Inital Complaints 

Thanks everyone, we eventually found figures for one local hospitals but trawling press releases, one for 2018-2019, showing they had achieved approx 69 percent of their ops within the 31 days post consultation, another hospital, the one we have been allocated is in special measures but achieved approx. 78 percent in 2019, so both under the 85 percent minimum requirement.

We only found out about her cancer this week, our nurse has said to call back next Friday for more info. and hopefully dates and we are still awaiting the HER2 result. It is oestrogen and progesterone receptive? (I quote these things but am still learning what they mean). My partner is only 45 (kids 6 and 10) so quite young and its grade two invasive having appeared from nowhere so we are obviously trying to get it removed ASAP. No lymph node problems on the scan but we'll not really know until the op.

It could be a lot lot worse of course,

Thanks again,

Tim.

Just found this, just in case anyone else is looking for the same info.? It doesn't seem to be specific to breast cancer but does show how each hospital is performing month on month regarding waiting times for operations etc.... https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cancer-waiting-times/monthly-comm-cwt/2019-20-monthly-commissioner-cancer-waiting-times-statistics/commissioner-based-cancer-waiting-times-for-march-2020-provisional/

hi Tim

good work on finding the spreadsheets and the stats for you local hospitals

45 seems very young but it's around 50 that seems to be the tipping point for a lot of women, and I suppose it is to do with age and hormones. 

All the multidisciplinary team meetings seem to take place Friday morning, where the whole team get together and discuss your treatment plans. Breast cancer is very treatable these days and there's quite a bit of literature around for explaining to kids. 

I was so lucky in a way that Angelina Jolie had just gone public with her double mastectomy, it made telling my lot so much easier but they're quite a bit older than yours. 

Let us know how you get on please

Carolyn

xxx