Leicester patients still facing long delays for surgery

Alex Patino-Pocuca (pictured with mother Mira) needs an operation on her knee

Patients in Leicester say they are still waiting months for operations.

Alex, 17, said she had been waiting for a knee operation since damaging it back in October 2020.

Wayne Sullivan, 42, was due to be seen within six weeks of a lump on his bowel being detected but is still waiting for surgery 16 months later.

University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL) said it has "made significant inroads in the last year to tackle wait times".

Last year it emerged 7m people - about one in eight of the population - were on waiting lists in England, with the Covid pandemic cited as a factor as nearly all routine treatment was stopped.

'Vanishing hope'

Alex requires two operations to mend her knee, and worries her injury may hamper her hopes of starting a course in sports science at university.

Surgery has been slated since at least July 2021, and a scheduled operation for 25 April has now been delayed until next month.

She said the wait and living with the pain have been hard to handle.

"I hold on to hope, and then it ends up all vanishing," she said.

"I have to keep working through it day by day, really."

Wayne Sullivan is waiting on surgery for a lump on his bowel

Mr Sullivan, who lives in the New Parks area of Leicester, said he has been struggling since 2018, and last year had a scan that confirmed the lump on his bowel was pre-cancerous.

After being told he needed to be seen in six weeks he said he rang up and was told he had been forgotten, and said the wait for treatment has affected his confidence.

"It's horrible not knowing whether or not you're going to have the operation," he said.

"With the condition you don't know whether it's going to turn even more dire.

"There has to come a time when you ask the question: how long can they use the pandemic as an excuse for not getting done what needs to be done?"

Jon Melbourne, chief medical officer at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL), said it continued "to prioritise the most clinically urgent patients", and urged anyone with concerns over their care "to contact our patient liaison team".

"We apologise to any patient who has been impacted by a long wait," he said.

Additional reporting by BBC Radio Leicester.