not happy with consultant

It might be an idea to have a chat with your clinical nurse specialist, assuming these two consultants are at the same hospital. The CNS might be able to arrange a switch. It probably won't be the first time they've heard this.

As an NHS patient, you have a right to be referred to any NHS hospital which will accept you, so you can choose another hospital. There's no guarantee you'll end up with a consultant you prefer. Under the NHS you don't technically have the right to choose a consultant, only the hospital, although most hospitals will try and give you consistency by seeing the same consultant every time.

You can of course go privately, and some of the NHS rules are to allow patients to choose to have some parts of their treatment privately and other parts on the NHS, and the NHS is required to cooperate by sharing scans, test results, etc with your private provider (and expects the private provider to do the same). However, it often doesn't work as smoothly as you might hope. Prostate cancer is not just the main treatment - it involves other things as well such as support by clinical nurse specialists, ED/andrology consultants, continence support, medications for these side effects, etc. These are not usually included in private treatment, and it can be difficult to get back onto this pathway in the NHS if you didn't have your main treatment in the NHS. You can of course do these privately too.

After my NHS diagnosis I had my prostatectomy carried out privately by the same urologist I was seeing on the NHS. The only reason I opted to go private was the very long waiting time on the NHS for the same surgery.  I didn't have too much of a problem switching back to NHS but I would agree with Andy. I didn't get the peripheral help and support with continence, ED etc until I was back with the NHS. Nearly three months had elapsed by that time since surgery. Ironically the private hospital offloaded me back to the NHS when I developed post operative complications while I was technically still under their care. It wasn't until I read the small print in the T&C that I found out they could actually do this. Poor of communication between the two hospitals resulted in a poor patient experience. I don't regret making that choice. It got me my prostatectomy probably nine months sooner but things did not go as smoothly as I had imagined.

The one I saw is a surgeon, 

Best wishes,

Chris

That was certainly my impression when diagnosed with PCa, albeit 14 years ago now.

Whilst lying on the couch awaiting my digital examination - something you hope will be in complete privacy - he was interrupted no less than 6 times by staff wanting help with issues they were dealing with, one of which was an emergency. Each time I was left lying there as he went off to sort out the problem. It's hardly surprising his manner was gruff.

Another later time I saw him it was no better. I was obliged to wait a full two hours beyond the time of my appointment before I was eventually called in. At a previous appointment he had swiftly outlined my treatment options - prostatectomy, radiotherapy, hormone therapy, watch and wait, etc, and this was to be my chance to ask him further questions before making a decision. Ten minutes into the consultation I had barely got beyond the first question before he abruptly interrupted to tell me my ten minutes were up!

I was dumbfounded and bewildered because I was still trying to get my head around all of the options and remained uncertain which to opt for. But he explained he was already running very late, it was around 7pm and he still had a queue of patients to see.

As a result of that shocking experience I decided to exercise my right to choose a different hospital (something that may no longer be possible under the NHS? not sure).

A few months later I met someone who had been treated privately by him who, to my astonishment, was full of admiration for this same consultant. He described how patient and helpful he was and how he could not do enough for him. I had a hard time trying to convince him how my experience of him was so completely different.

I do not doubt that the consultant in question (who has since passed away, RIP) was a top surgeon, one who had achieved quite a reputation. Given my RARP at the alternative hospital I chose did not go too well I somewhat regret not deciding to disregard that first consultant's gruff manner because I suspect he might well have done a better job and I may not have had to deal with some of the fall-out I since ended up with.