Dead at 19, the cancer victim who ‘waited a YEAR to see GP in person’
A TEENAGER who had to wait more than a year to see a doctor in person has died from cancer.
Amelia Ellerby, 19, was worried about a lump in her back and pain but was told to wait for a scan as her case was not thought to be urgent.
A GP who dealt with her online and by phone in February last year believed a lump ‘the size of a pea’ was probably a harmless cyst, her family said.
A year later she was in so much pain she called 999 but paramedics allegedly declined to take her to hospital as she was under the care of her GP.
When Amelia contacted her local surgery again in March a doctor realised something was seriously wrong, saw her in person and sent her for scans that soon revealed cancer in her lungs, lymph nodes, groin and back.
She started chemotherapy but died last month. Friends and relatives will gather at York Crematorium for her funeral today.
Family members revealed that when she knew she was dying Amelia said they should take legal action because ‘ someone should pay for this’. They have condemned GPs for using Covid as ‘an excuse’ not to see patients.
The Daily Mail’s Let’s See GPs Face To Face campaign has been calling for more in-person consultations amid fears that serious diseases are being missed.
Amelia was prescribed antibiotics after her original phone appointment Medical with Centre a GP in at Acomb, the Priory York, during lockdown in February last year. She was told there would be a six-month wait for a scan but this proved optimistic. Meanwhile, her pain and fears grew.
Amelia’s auntei Claire Hanshaw, with whom she lived, said: ‘She kept ringing them every six weeks because the lump was still there.
‘She did not know what it was and wanted to be seen. They just kept saying she had been referred for a scan. She did not get seen for a year.
‘When she did eventually get seen by a doctor, he got her in two days later for an X-ray. A week and half later she had an MRI scan because the doctor was concerned and thought it might be cancer.’
While she was waiting for results, her pain got so bad she went to A&E at York District Hospital and a CT scan identified cancer.
The teenager, who worked in a supermarket, was soon told she had only a short time to live.
Mrs Hanshaw said: ‘We are furious. It is time doctors stopped using Covid as an excuse to see fewer people.
‘She was angry she had not been seen. She could have been cured or had a couple more years of life.
‘If she had been seen it could have been removed and she would still
be here.’ Another auntie Meredith Stier said she visited in October last year and her husband, a paramedic, was concerned and told Amelia to go back to the doctor.
She said: ‘She kept ringing the GPs and they told her she was on the list for the ultrasound and she would just have to wait.
‘She kept working, despite being in pain. Amelia always put a brave face on. But deep down she was really scared and angry – we all were. It felt like she had been failed massively by the system.’
The Priory Medical Centre, where Amelia had been a patient for six years, said it does not comment on individual cases.
York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said scan appointments depend ‘on the nature of the referral’.
A spokesman added that ‘if a referral is made to investigate a potential cancer, this is fasttracked’ – a service maintained ‘throughout the pandemic’.