One year... and still waiting for a final scan that may give all-clear

A CANCER patient has waited a year for a scan which could give him the all clear.

It should have been carried out on Kenny Stitt, 2, last November. He underwent surgery in 2013 and was due a final colonoscopy a year ago. But NHS Lothian has failed to carry out the check amid soaring waiting times and staff shortages.

Mr Stitt, a grandfather-of-one from Edinburgh, said: ‘I would hate to find out that the cancer had come back. But I won’t know until I have had my final scan.’

Doctors told him he had bowel cancer after he took part in the national bowel cancer screening programme.

He said: ‘I had emergency surgery to remove the first and last part of my bowel, leaving me with just the middle bit.’

Following treatment at the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, Mr Stitt had sixmonthly colonoscopies and blood tests.

These then became annual and he was due his last annual scan in November 2017. Mr Stitt said: ‘A year on and I still haven’t had it. It makes me very anxious.’

Just two-thirds of Scots referred from the bowel screening programme are seen within the target of 2 days.

But waiting times guarantees do not apply to patients who are in the system.

Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘A concerted effort is being put into detecting and treating bowel cancer early. Yet that’s being undermined in this case.’

Jim Crombie, deputy chief executive, NHS Lothian, said: ‘We cannot comment on individual cases without the consent of a patient, but I’d apologise to anyone who is waiting too long for an appointment.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We are clear that excessively long treatment waiting times are unacceptable.’