A young woman claims she has been "driven below the poverty line" and resorted to using food banks due to major delays in her NHS treatment. Lily Jones, from Splott, Cardiff, said her life has been on hold for nearly a year as no-one can find out why she is suffering such awful stomach pain.
The 23-year-old said she went to A&E at the University Hospital of Wales (UHW) last October where she spent 12 hours in the waiting area in agony "curled up in a chair" surrounded by dozens of other unwell patients. She claimed she was discharged home with painkillers for a suspected ruptured ovarian cyst caused by her polycystic ovary syndrome.
However, days later she was back in A&E where she waited a further 10 hours before being told by a different doctor that she may have a urinary tract infection. The following week Lily said she was admitted onto a ward at UHW for three days and given an ultrasound scan which came back clear.
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She found new hope in January when she received an 'urgent' referral from her GP to see a specialist in the gynaecology department. However, as a result of the huge backlog of planned NHS care - made significantly worse by the coronavirus pandemic - she is still awaiting a date for an appointment. Due to the large amount of medication she is on to numb her constant pain, she said she had to defer her degree at the University of South Wales for a year, stop working and seek emergency help with food.
"It's dangerous for me to be on campus due to the strong medication I'm on. It was a health and safety decision," said Lily, who was into her second year of costume construction which involves using industrial sewing machines. "I was so unwell I couldn't physically get into university.
"Having to leave for a year was devastating. I'd already taken three years between leaving school and finding something I really wanted to do, and then to finally get there and have to take another year out is very upsetting.
"I was then forced onto universal credit which, as we all know, is absolutely nothing. That then forced me below the poverty line. It was a very big struggle for a good couple of months."
While it was "embarrassing" to use a food bank, Lily said it was done out of necessity. "You don’t want to admit to anyone, let alone a perfect stranger, that you're struggling to afford food just so you can get the voucher," she added. "Once I was actually at the food bank everyone was lovely and the person from the Cardiff Central Hub that issued me the voucher was there and saw me through the process, asking about any dietary requirements I had and making sure I'd got everything I needed. They even offered me a bus ticket in case I had walked there."
Lily has now managed to find some ad-hoc work with a board games company to give her a small income stream, but she said trying to cover her bills remains a struggle. She said managing her pain is having an impact on her mental as well as physical health.
She said: "I'm bored of having to wake up in pain and take medication, and then take more medication later in the day. I go from being unable to function to still feeling very uncomfortable, so it's not like the pain completely goes away. In the beginning I wasn't leaving the house much at all, and now I worry all the time about opioid addiction. My condition could be getting progressively worse without anyone realising."
In a bid to simply manage her pain, Lily said she has been given an appointment with a chronic pain clinic. "It feels too little too late. It's sellotape on a burst pipe at this point. I'm optimistic in that they’ll help reduce the amount of painkillers I'm on, but I just really want to know what's wrong with me so I can have a treatment plan."
Lily added that there are likely to be thousands of people in the same situation as her who are languishing in pain on an NHS waiting list. According to the Welsh Government more than half a million patients, and 722,147 patient "pathways", are awaiting elective treatment – the most on record. "I'm an urgent referral, so God knows how long people will wait with non-urgent referrals," she concluded. "NHS Wales says they want to see all referral cases within nine months, but they aren't even seeing the urgent ones in nine months. I'm hoping I'll be seen before Christmas but it's unlikely."
In response to her claims, a spokesperson for Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, said: "We are experiencing significant and sustained pressures which is having an impact on our services including gynaecology. Our focus remains on patient care and our staff are working tirelessly to see patients in a timely manner. In this instance, we sincerely apologise for the delays she has experienced, and we would advise them to contact our concerns department if they would like to discuss this further.
"While we are under these extreme pressures, we would like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding. We know that long waiting times can be a cause of distress and anxiety and are working hard to try to reduce these. We would ask the public that if they do have an urgent, non-life-threatening emergency, to call NHS 111 Wales free from a mobile or landline. By doing so, a call handler will assess your condition and, if appropriate, a clinician from CAV 24/7 will call you back for further assessment and access to urgent care. This is to ensure we can assess and direct patients to services appropriately, helping to reduce pressure on the system and ensuring we can support those most in need."
Following the publication of the latest NHS performance figures, the Welsh Government highlighted that progress was being made across Wales to reduce the longest waits. A spokeswoman said the number of patient pathways waiting for more than two years reduced by 4.4% - the second consecutive monthly fall after two years of consistent increases since the pandemic began.
"Despite the increase in demand, huge numbers of patients were seen in May with the highest number of inpatient and day case treatments carried out (24,167) since the start of the pandemic. This figure forms part of a total of almost 365,000 patient consultations (not including GP appointments or therapies) undertaken by the NHS in Wales, the fourth highest since the start of the pandemic back in March 2020.
"There continues to be increased demand for emergency care and pressures are being intensified due to challenges with patient flow through the hospital system, as well as staffing constraints including a rise in Covid-sickness."
**Lily's real surname is not Jones. She asked WalesOnline not to use her real surname to protect her identity.
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