Fifty women in four-year wait for breast surgery

Delays dating back to the Covid lockdown have left women "in limbo"

More than 50 women have been left in limbo for breast reconstruction because their initial operations were carried out during the Covid pandemic.

One woman who had a double mastectomy in December 2020 told the BBC she was unable to rebuild her life because she was still waiting for surgery four years on.

The backlog in the West Midlands involves women needing to have delayed reconstruction due to some procedures not being possible during lockdown.

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS trust apologised and said it was recruiting an additional surgeon next month.

The woman, a single mother with two children, discovered she carried the BRCA gene which predisposes her to cancer after having surgery on one breast.

Ordinarily, a risk-reducing second mastectomy and an operation to remove her ovaries would have been carried out by the NHS but this was not available during the pandemic.

Instead, she spent £20,000 on further private surgery to ensure she remained cancer-free.

Four years later, however, she is still waiting to have her reconstructive surgery.

Women currently undergoing mastectomies have immediate reconstruction, but there is a backlog of pandemic patients.

It means there are about 50 women who also need delayed reconstruction still ahead of her in the queue.

'Totally let down'

"I cannot begin to explain the damage that has been caused to me both mentally and physically in my everyday home and work life," she said.

"As time passes, the stress and anxiety continue to get worse."

She said she was "unable to move forward and rebuild my life".

"As I approach the four-year anniversary of my cancer diagnosis this month, never did it cross my mind that the delay would be such as this," she added.

"While I wait for my surgery, I am in limbo. I feel totally let down by the NHS."

The NHS trust in Birmingham said it was recruiting another surgeon

Deborah Douglas, from support group Breast Friends, said she did not believe the NHS recognised the impact long waits for surgery had on mental health.

University Hospitals Birmingham confirmed it had a shortage of oncoplastic surgeons, adding other hospitals around the country were experiencing similar issues because the procedure needed two surgeons and took up to 12 hours.

Extra theatre time had been allocated to those facing long waits and cases were being treated on a chronological and priority basis, the trust said.

It is also hoping to move some less complex surgery to Solihull to free up theatre space.

"The recruitment of the additional surgeon will help provide us further surgical capacity in this area, helping us to actively bring waiting times down sooner and improve an experience that we acknowledge is extremely difficult for patients – an experience that we are sorry for," a spokeswoman said.