Patient’s appeal to Sturgeon after year of pain on NHS list
A PATIENT forced to wait over a year in constant pain has been given an appointment after writing to the First Minister.
Hugh Falconer, 67, contacted Nicola Sturgeon in desperation after NHS Grampian failed to treat him within the Scottish Government’s 12-week waiting time guarantee.
The photographer, from Sauchen, Aberdeenshire, has required regular treatment for benign but painful tumours since he was a teenager.
He has been waiting 56 weeks for surgery since his initial referral in March 2017.
Mr Falconer, has Dercum’s disease – a rare disorder that causes multiple, painful growths on the body. There is no cure for the condition but the growths can be removed if they become too painful.
He wrote to Miss Sturgeon and NHS Grampian to raise concerns that the Scottish Government’s 12-week waiting time guarantee, which is enshrined in law, is effectively ‘worthless’.
It has been broken thousands of times since its introduction in 2012, with some patients waiting many months, and there is no sanction on NHS boards for breaking the law. Currently one quarter of patients wait longer than 12 weeks for surgery.
Mr Falconer sent both letters last Monday, and four days later he received an appointment for his surgery. The procedure will go ahead next month.
He said: ‘I’ve got mixed feelings at the moment. I think it’s an important message to get out to the First Minister that the waiting time guarantee is not working and in fact is being totally ignored. It’s a mess. It is being completely ignored. The worrying thing is how long will I have to wait the next time? And there will be a lot more people in my boat. There must be thousands of other patients out there just desperate for their treatment.’
Alexander Burnett, Scottish Conservative MSP for Aberdeenshire West, said: ‘My constituent is certainly not alone. It begs the question of whether this pledge that was enshrined in law by the SNP has any impact at all on decisions taken by health boards.’
A spokesman for NHS Grampian said: ‘We have spoken with Mr Falconer and he now has a date for his procedure. We completely accept that his wait was well beyond what we would want for our patients and have apologised.’
Health Secretary Shona Robison said: ‘Long waits like the one Mr Falconer experienced are clearly unacceptable. That is why we have provided an additional £50million this year to reduce treatment waiting times.’