A young woman has called for urgent improvements to cancer diagnoses in her part of Wales following the tragic death of her father. Sara Mair Sauro's father Derrick Williams was diagnosed with stage four cancer a day after going to A&E in severe pain - and died just nine days later.
Derrick first contacted his doctor in December last year after suffering with a chest complaint and weight loss. But Sara said it took two months for him to get a face-to-face appointment, and he was given an asthma pump, laxatives and steroid medicine.
It wasn’t until March this year that he was referred for tests following requests from his family, who clearly knew something wasn’t right. To get the latest Carmarthenshire stories sent directly to you for free, click here.
Read more: Met Office extends 'extreme heat' warning with temperatures to soar even higher
When a blood test came back as abnormal, Derrick, from Pontyberem in Carmarthenshire, was referred for an ultrasound. By that time, however, he was in unbearable pain and went himself straight to the A&E department at Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen. It was there where, within 24 hours, the 62-year-old was told he had tumours that had spread to his liver. It was confirmed that he had stage four cancer, and just 10 days after he walked into A&E, Mr Williams died.
"He went to the GP to find out exactly what was going on with him,” his daughter Sara said. "What’s cruel is, he just went so quickly, I just want answers to understand. I don’t think the end result would have changed but you never know as he wasn’t given that opportunity.
"I took him to A&E out of my own choice and his own choice because he couldn’t go on anymore. I felt like I was in a nightmare. We didn’t have long, and he was trying to be positive saying ‘I’m going to fight this, I’m going to be here for you’. I can’t help but feel like I’ve let him down."
Mother-of-two Sara appeared on S4C’s Byd ar Bedwar on Monday night and admitted that she has serious questions about healthcare provision in west Wales. Her frustration and pain is heightened due to the fact that her mother Janet also died from cancer six years ago - just three months after being diagnosed.
“I very much feel we are at the end of the M4 and the healthcare around here is unfortunately not the best,” she said. “They need to look at why we are the last to receive what bigger hospitals have received years before. I don’t think we have the capacity, I don’t think we have the care. I feel like we are at the end of the line.”
Latest statistics show that Hywel Dda University Health Board, which manages healthcare in west Wales, had the worst cancer waiting times in all of Wales in April 2022. 48% of cancer patients in the health board area started their cancer treatment within the 62-day-target set by the Welsh Government, compared to 68.2% in the Betsi Cadwaladr area in north Wales. No single health board in Wales met the government’s target of 75%.
Health minister Eluned Morgan has admitted that some patients in Wales are not seen quickly enough, and that Covid-19 has had an impact on diagnosing and treating cancer. She said: “I recognise there’s a serious problem, that we’re not seeing people quick enough. We have targets that we are missing and that’s why we are pouring millions into this effort to get services back to where they should be but we are seeing more patients than we have ever seen before.
“We now have Rapid Diagnostic Centres in every health board in Wales. The one in Cardiff will be coming online later this year and that will speed up the process and hopefully get people diagnosed much quicker. We want to see a consistent approach across the whole of Wales. It is difficult because we’ve seen a wave of Covid hitting our oncologists - hitting the people who are actually delivering this service.”
In response to the concerns raised by Sara regarding her father’s treatment and care, Hywel Dda University Health Board confirmed that they are looking into the circumstances which led to his death. Mandy Rayani, director of nursing, quality and patient experience at the health board, said: “We would like to offer our deepest condolences to the family of Mr Williams. While we are unable to comment on individual patient cases, we take all complaints very seriously and are in the process of responding to the issues that have been raised.”
Read next:
- What the rules are around hospital visiting in each part of Wales
- Man, 49, sustains serious head injuries after alleged assault in Swansea
- Paul Gascoigne is coming to Wales but it'll cost up to £80 to see him
- The latest death notices in Carmarthenshire as families remember loved ones
- Man punched wife and hit her with chair in front of their child
