Reconstruction Surgery on NHS been refused!!

Hi…just been for my second appointment with the Plastic Surgeon to discuss when I am to have surgery and been given the news that our local PTC (Sefton) will object to this being done on the NHS and I will have to fund the £5k myself!They consider it a cosmetic process!

Both myself and my husband were speechless. I have been left with a very ugly shaped breast after my initial lumpectomy. It is in a very prominent position and I have been assured all along that surgery would make it 90% better. Now I feel completely let down. It is totally not fair after all I have been through (surgery/chemo/rads). My husband and three of his friends raised more than £5k for cancer research this year. I feel like asking for a refund!! Has anybody else experienced this situation?

What a shock for you and so, so unfair. I had to pay for my lipofilling op to give my breast a better shape after mx and ld flap recon. The radiotherapy treatment had flattened my breast. My local PCT didn’t have the necessary equipment to perform the operation. I’m concerned that I may not be able to have a reduction on the other breast on the NHS with all the cuts that are happening at the moment in the NHS.

Hi Paris,
I am utterly horrified for you, but not surprised. I am seeing my consultant this week, and I expect to be told the same. Had MX nearly 4 yrs ago now, and I have tried four times to get reconstruction, but my surgeon told me I was such high risk of cancer returning, he wouldn’t do it!! I don’t know ANYONE else who has been refused on these grounds! Had large 5cm triple neg tumour with heavy lymphovascular involvement, but guess what? 4 years later and I am still clear, so much for his statistics.But now have spinal probs due to treatment, so then he refused me on grounds of disability! I am basically fit, have never smoked or drunk, so I am gutted. Got a lovely new lady surgeon, so I was hoping this time I would be able to finally have surgery, but I am sure it will be turned down on financial grounds, like yourself, and I certainly can’t afford to go private. This year alone, I have been turned down down spinal treatment as PCT won’t pay, turned down for psychiatric help, as PCT won’t pay, so why should I really expect any difference now?
What is happening to our NHS?
Jax

I am horrified to read this,its seems a real postcode lottery.maybe with all the cuts it will become more widespread.
I have been lucky even after my immed recon ,I now have a PS who will work on it until I am happy.
Have they any idea of the psychological trauma involved with being denied reconstuction surgery that you have been depending on receiving?
Hugs
Dot
xxx

Thanks ladies for your comments. I intend to speak to my GP very soon and see what he has to say about it. As Dot says they have no idea of the psychological trauma this can cause. I bet the person who made this decision is a man! x

OMG…that is outrageous!

Cosmetic reasons? I hardly think so!

I had a left mastectomy last autumn, then reconstruction in June.
My surgeon did the other side for me last week - a lift and impant, no questions asked.
Without it, i would have been left vert very lob sided and it was ugly to be honest.

How can they refuse…this is terrible…you need to take it futher and talk about the psychological impact it will have on your life it left…

Hope you get somewhere soon…xxxxxxxx

sorry to hear that reconns are being refused, thought it was on the cards, I am NHS and could see the signs bubbling along, I am so disapointed we are truely a 3rd world country when it comes to health hate having to say that too, such a backward step

good luck to all who want a reconn x

It is very sad that so much of the NHS is a postcode lottery, but I really can’t see how the NHS has any other option but to stop non-essential surgery. In my mind breast recon is far from essential and it is inevitable that with a recession the NHS cannot stay the bottomless pit of money that it has been.

My experience of the NHS is that it is far from 3rd world, not only has it saved my life from bc, but it saved the life of my un-born twins when I had highly difficult surgery on my placenta whilst 22 weeks pregnant. Denying breast cosmetic surgery hardly constitutes comparison with countries where women regularly die in childbirth, simple operations are left undone and only the rich can afford basic hygiene.

It is terrible that your expectations were raised and then being told you could not have surgery and outrageous that the services provided vary so much from PCT to PCT.

Good luck getting your ps done.

HI all,
I too think this is awful but am not surprised. I am a practice nurse and work in a GP’s surgery and we were told a few weeks ago that our PCT (Cheshire) was v overpsent and we have to cut down on all non urgent referrals…I am also a patient, had mastectomy a year ago, chemo, rads and have an appt in 3 weeks to discuss reconstruction with my surgeon. Have asked the bcn about this subject and she told me today they were still doing them at present but no guaratees for the future. So can only keep my fingers croosed I get in in time, if not will be gutted…
Good luck to all, its very unfair! xx

Yes sorry we do not have a 3rd world NHS, got carried away, I do get very worried , if we dont continue with progress in operation methods, and we stop performing certain procedures , how on earth do our trainee surgeons get experience , what can we offer the next generation

good luck all

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I have had bilateral mastectomies and after much contemplation I decided against reconstruction. It just isn’t for me.
But I can see how vitally important recon is for many patients.

It is a shame that we don’t get given vouchers for treatment - someone could have the double reconstruction that I have turned down - which has saved my PCT a b----y fortune.

Good luck Paris - I think you have grounds for appeal - keep nagging at them.

Hi Paris
I am so sorry about your PCT’s decision. By rights you should have a decent reconstrucion. You could try your local MP, particularly if he/ she is in opposition. I would realy fight this. I agree completely with Norberte’s comment.
Sue