Patient Stephen was forced to go private
Pain was too much to wait on NHS
A patient living in agony with back problems told this week he was forced to go for private treatment.
Stephen Murchie insisted he would have had to take time off work as he waited up to 18 months for an operation on the NHS. Mr Murchie hit out after last month we reported that patients for treatments such as physiotherapy and podiatry had to wait beyond the government’s four week waiting target. Almost 2700 patients in the last quarter of 2017 waited longer than the four weeks target. Mr Murchie, of Fairlie Cottage, Dundonald, says the system is broken and that NHS Ayrshire and Arran need to take action to solve the problem. The father- of- two claims it would have taken 46 weeks to get an appointment, then a further 16 weeks to see a physiotherapist and 16 weeks more for an operation. He said: “I couldn’t take this time off work so that’s why I was forced to go private. I can’t wait one year and half with back problems. “There is only five physiotherapists at Crosshouse Hospital. “It needs to be managed better.” Mr Murchie estimated that it could cost a whopping £ 4m in sickness benefit payment for people on the waiting list because they can’t work while they receive treatment. “This money could be better spent on employing more physiotherapists,” he added. “We could have better equipment and first state of the art building and equipment for that money.” Mr Murchie said that he waited four weeks to get his operation at the private hospital in Glasgow and was back to normal six weeks later. “This is a story that needs to be told,” he added. “NHS Ayrshire and Arran need to do something about it.” Tim Eltringham, director of South Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership, said: “We take all patients’ feedback, comments, concerns or complaints very seriously. “While we cannot comment on individual patients, we would encourage Mr Murchie to contact us directly with any concerns about his care or treatment. This is the only way that we can properly provide feedback.” NHS Ayrshire and Arran apologised to any patient who has had to wait longer than is acceptable for an appointment for musculoskeletal ( MSK) services. Patients waiting for MSK services are seen on the basis of clinical priority and then by who has been waiting the longest. The MSK performance within Ayrshire and Arran has improved since the last national report in December 2017 with 58.2 per cent of patients on the current waiting list, waiting less than four weeks at the end of January 2018. To help improve waiting times, the health authority have introduced a patient- focussed booking, GP- based physiotherapy and improved treatment pathways for people with chronic pain. A further range of improvement projects is being initiated over the next 12 months to ensure this performance is sustained and built on. Mr Eltringham added; “Additional clinical resources have been made available to help with the steady improvement in performance over the past year. However, the recruitment and retention of clinical staff has been challenging and has slowed the rate of improvement.”