after referrel......

How soon after one has been referred by the family doc do you hear from anyone?

 I was referred in Sept/10 and had initial consult with dr. andrwe on may 6 /11. so it was approx 8 months for me. On Julies answering machine right now, it says the wait is about 12 months. I know the wait list has grown significantly. When were you referred?

I thought they were supposed to send a letter of acceptance saying that you were on the waiting list as a first step.  I could be wrong but I thought I read that somewhere.....

I saw my family doctor on December 15th of last year to get a referal.  It took over 2 months to receive a confirmation letter from the surgeons saying that I met the criteria for surgery.  That letter is dated February 25th.  

I was hoping to have the surgery this year but I can't see that happening.  Hopefully in early 2012. 

You should check with Julie - it's my understanding the referral date that they received the referral and not the date of the letter.

I thought the same thing (that my referral date was the date of my letter which was a month later****il I was - happily - corrected by Julie.

 yes you are right, you will get a letter stating if you meet the criteria. mine was dated oct 12, referral went in sept 15. they consider your date of referral to be when your gp sent in your referral, not once you recieve your acceptance letter. so dont panic if you havent recieved your letter yet, it wont set you back.

Ok....thanks everyone! My next question is....what kind of criteria is there all to meet? I know they only do surgeries with a BMI 47 and lower. Does anyone know what the lowest BMI is they do surgery on....if that makes sense?

 mine was 35 at time of referral with hypertension.if you have no comorbidities, it is 37 minimum. By the time my surgery date rolled around i had gained 40 lbs.

So if you loose a bit weight and are under 37 at surgery time, are you out of luck then?

wouldn't hurt to check and make sure they got your referral letter. I phoned in February and my referral had been at the end of December and Julie had no record of it. Had to get my clinic to resend all information and I got my rejection letter about 2 weeks later.

Karen