NHS telling patients to wait until 2022 for telephone consultation as result of backlog

PATIENTS with life-threatening conditions are being told they must wait until 2022 for a telephone consultation with a specialist, due to the impact of coronavirus.

Charities last night called for urgent action after it emerged that a pensioner with swelling of the blood vessels in his head had an appointment to discuss his drugs regimen postponed indefinitely, a consultation delayed for 14 months and another until January 2022.

Martyn Lincoln, who was diagnosed in May with giant cell arteritis, risks diabetes, cataracts and hair loss unless he can reduce the daily dose of the steroids he takes to control the disease.

Yet despite hospital admissions for coronavirus peaking in mid-april, the 67-year-old’s local NHS trust can offer him no means of safely lowering his dose “in view of Covid-19 pressures”.

It comes amid warnings that the list of people waiting for NHS treatment could double to more than 10 million by the end of the year, while senior doctors have said their wards resemble a “medical version of the Mary Celeste”.

Mr Lincoln, a formerly a fit and active garden centre manager from Buckinghamshire, has written about his delays in a letter to The Daily Telegraph.

John Mills, from Vasculitis UK, said: “Martyn’s case should be reviewed urgently by his consultant.”

A spokesman for the NHS Trust said: “Our doctors, nurses and other staff have worked incredibly hard over the last few months to make sure that all patients who needed urgent care have been able to receive it, which has been the case for Mr Lincoln. While there has been an inevitable impact on less urgent appointments, our teams are increasingly bringing these back, prioritising those in greatest need.”