‘Some people wish that they were dead. This is inhuman’
Patients tell of months in agony without pain-killing injections
A MOVE to Scotland has left Jenni Jeynes in pain. A lot. The mother-of-four used to get three NHS injections a year to manage the chronic unrelenting pain she suffers. Now she gets one.
The reason for her extra agony: she moved from London to Scotland. Ever since the move Ms Jeynes has had to make do with a single jab every 12 months. Her medication is overdue this year, and not for the first time.
Unable to leave her house and a wheelchair user, the 46-year-old is racked by intense pain and spasms due to arthritis, sciatica and other conditions. She does not want to wait. Her pain, she explains, is “like an electric shock; like sticking fingers in a plug socket, which I did as a child”.
She adds: “I have to close the curtains and can’t even watch TV because the light makes it worse.”
Ms Jeynes moved from London to Lossiemouth in Moray after her husband was transferred to the town’s RAF base, which he has now left. Her condition has been getting worse since the move – so, she says, are delays in her care.
“The annual injection took 14 months last time,” she said. “But it starts wearing off, anything from five weeks to three months later. Eventually, I had injections on February 23, 2016, so I was due again last month but still there’s no renewal appointment. I’ve phoned the clinic and believe I may be delayed until the summer.”
She added: “The doctors at Aberdeen are good. My concern is over the huge delays here. Why? My medical records were sent by the NHS in London to Scotland, showing I had treatment thrice a year. Now my pain levels have soared and everyone in my situation is depressed.”
Ms Jeynes is not the only patient who has had to wait more than a year. Alison Riddoch, also 46, had to wait more than 14 months for renewal of an injection for excruciating pain. Ms Riddoch has seen her number of injections from NHS Grampian drop from three to two per year then to just one a year, but even that cannot be relied upon to be on time. The mother-of-two blames “box-ticking” that gives priority to first-time patients.
Her last jab – more than two months over the year gap – was so long coming it had little effect. She says: “The injections haven’t worked well because they were so long overdue. The pain was excruciating – the worst of my life.”
Ms Riddoch, from Buckie, has suffered from severe pain affecting her neck, right arm and spine since a car accident 10 years ago. Ms Riddoch praises doctors as excellent but adds: “The whole problem is shortage of staffing.”
Venita Maclean, 53, from Fochabers, has the same issues after injuring her back 10 years ago in a fall in her kitchen that forced her to give up work.
“I now get one injection annually when I feel I need more. Just one a year leaves me in very, very bad pain. It feels like biting snakes going up and down my back.”
When the injection wears off after a few months, she knows she faces up to nine months in torment. “Some people wish themselves dead,” she says of friends on waiting lists. “What is happening is inhuman.”