Detouring the slow train

    If you are stuck in an interminable waiting list - no, if you are stuck in a holding pattern simply to be on the waiting list, what would you do if someone offered you a shortcut?
    Readers of this blog will know that I'm on the slow train when it comes to transition, nearly 4 years full time and 7 years in the system, but discharged from the GIC because after 18 months fighting awful treatment by my then employer I wasn't ready to go forward for surgery. Having sought re-admission to a GIC I've subsequently found out that it's likely to be 18 months before I see anyone and then another year before I have my referral letters, so getting on for 3 more years to surgery. Naturally I'm about as pissed off and dejected as it's possible to get. Knowing that with 4 years behind you you've made a far better job of a social transition than many of those who overtook you in their race for surgery doesn't help when you're left in the wilderness.
    So back to the question, if someone offered you a shortcut, would you take it? And if that someone was your doctor, your GP, especially would you take it? Hell yeah!
    I'm not going to go into the gory details, but there is something I can do that will save me a lot of waiting, which my GP tells me will let me back into the system by a different route. It's not some magic fix for those at the start of the process who are desperate to go faster so don't bother asking, instead it's for the rare and unusual cases like me who are stuck, but stuck very near the end of the medical road.
    It does however involve a short detour into the private sector, seeing a different set of doctors, and forking out a moderate amount of cash. Not new car levels of cash, or even slightly new car levels of cash, but let's say decent quality older car levels of cash. Cash I can afford, but would prefer not to waste.
    It's risky, in that it depends on my GP's say-so. If he decides to forget the path he laid out for me, then it's wasted money. Wait the 3 years, or fork out new car levels of cash for private surgery. Which I could raise if I perform financial back-flips, but would prefer not to.
    In Hollywood films there seems often to be a mysterious plot twist in which a choice is offered to the protagonist through which they can continue their boring life or enter a course of excitement and danger. Looks as though that just happened to me.