07 July 2023 , 07:41
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A dad has been waiting six months in agonising pain for treatment for a brain tumour - and may need to wait another four months.
Graham Scott, 45, has been told he may not be seen by a specialist until November, leaving him and his family begging for help.
The NHS worker's wife Jackie, 45, has written to Scottish Health Minister Michael Matheson in a desperate bid for him to step in.
While waiting for treatment Graham has suffered agonising headaches, blurred vision and seizures which his family fear is because the tumour is growing, Daily Record reports.
Graham, from Lanarkshire, has a meningioma, a non-cancerous tumour, that will keep growing and could be life-threatening.
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Telling of the family’s six months of hell, Jackie said: “The week before New Year one of my sons came to find me and said his dad had collapsed and was hanging over a fence. Graham couldn’t tell me where he was.
“We got a doctor’s appointment for December 30 and he was admitted to Wishaw General. The hospital originally thought he had a mini stroke but they did scans and the following day told us there was a mass on his brain which appeared to be a small meningioma tumour.
Graham could be forced to wait until November (Daily Record)“They confirmed the diagnosis on January 4 and marked the referral as ‘urgent’ for the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. The QEUH received it on January 19 but we are still waiting.
“I phoned after two weeks and was told even though it was marked urgent it would be up to 16 weeks before he was seen.
“I called back after 15 weeks and was told it would be June but when I phoned at the end of May I was told it would be July or August. Then it was September, now it is November.
“When I called a few days ago I was told the surgeon was off sick needing a procedure himself and that waiting times for urgent cases were now 40 weeks long.”
Jackie is struggling to understand the delay, adding that she feels Graham's case is not being seen as "urgent". Graham has also said
Jackie said: “The last time I called the QEUH [Queen Elizabeth University Hospital]Graham was 20th on the list but now he is 26th. How urgent do you have to be to be seen?
“He is in agony and struggling but no-one seems to care. This morning he was in tears saying ‘I have had enough’ and last week he was talking about harming himself because he is in so much pain.”
When Jackie emailed Michael Matheson about Graham’s case the health minister’s office apologised for the delay to his treatment, blaming Covid and “the impact of winter pressures”.
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They said they were “deeply sorry” to hear of Graham’s distress and that he has been waiting so long for treatment and that they “fully understand your anger and frustration”.
Graham started taking seizures in March and is getting shooting pains in his head while waiting.
Jackie said: “The GP referred him to Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride and he got medication for the seizures which helped for a while but they are back again.
“He has no quality of life, he is shaking on one side and had short-term memory loss. We still don’t know if the tumour can be removed.”
When Jackie leaves for work she briefs her younger son Callum, 16, what to do if his dad should collapse, adding: “I am terrified every time I go out.”
Last night Labour’s health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said the case was “an indication of the crisis facing the NHS”.
She said: “It has clearly been a clinical decision that this is urgent but the crisis is to such an extent they can’t see this man for the best part of a year. It’s well behind time that the SNP got a grip of this crisis.”
Lib-Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton commented: “The frustration and anxiety this man’s family must be feeling is incomprehensible.
“That he should have to wait half a year and then be told he has at least another four months to wait could turn a non lethal condition into a lethal one.
“We all celebrated 75 years of the NHS this week but that’s cold comfort to people who may actually die while waiting for treatment.”
An NHSGGC spokesman said the health board did not comment on individual cases but said: “We understand that delays to treatment will cause distress to patients and for this we would like to apologise.
“Our clinicians regularly review caseloads and prioritise treatment of patients on the basis of most urgent need, within well-established guidelines designed to ensure patients get the appropriate care.
“As is the case with health boards across the country, all our services are recovering and remobilising after the pandemic but our staff are continually working to reduce delays and provide the best patient-centred care possible.”