Women who find a lump in their breast may be sent to a neighbouring health board to rule out cancer in the future, a struggling health board has said. It comes as young women suspected of having the disease face waiting lists as long as a year for a diagnostic scan at the Royal Glamorgan hospital in Pontyclun.
Anthony Curtis from Merthyr Tydfil said his family were left anxious when his 20-year-old daughter found a lump in her breast and was told she would need to wait nearly four months to have an ultrasound scan to determine its cause. Even though her doctor escalated her scan as urgent, Anthony said his daughter still faced a 15-week wait.
After seven weeks of constant worry, Anthony said the family felt they had no choice but to spend hundreds of pounds to get a private scan at the Spire hospital in Cardiff. Luckily the lump turned out to be a non-cancerous fiibroadenoma (commonly referred to as a 'breast mouse'), but Anthony said the experience shocked him and his family.
Read more: Wales plans to end NHS waiting times of more than a year by spring 2025
The 63-year-old said: "It was stressful and caused a lot of anxiety and worry within the family. It's a constant worry that is with you all day every day until you can get clarification. Fortunately for us we came out of it okay. What I found about our experience going to Spire is how quickly it was dealt with. Fortunately for us, we had the funds available to go there.
"Other people in different circumstances such as unemployment may be left with no alternative to wait 15 weeks which is very sad. We're in a situation now where times are getting harder for people financially with costs going up considerably. People just haven't got money anymore. If we didn't have the funds, I don't know where we would have turned to. There are probably people out there having to wait 15 weeks to get the news that there is something seriously wrong with them."
Although Anthony and his family were relieved by the results, others are not as fortunate. In March, WalesOnline spoke to Siobhan Harrison from New Tredegar who found a lump in her breast aged 23 in December 2020.
The now 24-year-old said she was also referred to the breast clinic at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, where she faced a wait of around 12 months to have an ultrasound scan on her breast. After going private around three months into her wait, Siobhan discovered she had an aggressive form of breast cancer. You can get more health news and other story updates by subscribing to our newsletters here.
Following a year of successful treatment and surgery, Siobhan said: "After my surgery I had to wait for results, which showed it hadn't spread to my lymph nodes. I felt lucky then because it had been removed and hadn't spread - especially with having to wait so long. I dread to think what would have happened if I waited another nine months. Reading other people's stories, you know time is really at the essence. It can take weeks to grow and I was given [a further] nine months to wait."
Although the waiting times experienced by these women are painfully long, it is also important to note that the likelihood of developing breast cancer so young is rare. According to the National Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on treatment of breast lumps. The guidelines state: "Consider non-urgent referral in people aged under 30 years with an unexplained breast lump with or without pain."
This means younger women will generally face longer waiting times for the diagnosis of a breast lump than older women. However, both women included in this article were given urgent referrals which still did not speed up their diagnoses.
A spokesperson for Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board said: "We are starting to explore a regional approach with neighbouring health boards but this is a longer term approach." Although no details or dates have been released about the potential change, the health board said it is something staff are looking into.
The spokesman added: "We cannot comment on individual cases, but recognise that our cancer waiting times are sometimes more lengthy than we would want them to be.
“Working with our regional partners, and benefitting from the Welsh Government’s investment in planned care, we are focussing on key areas of immediate improvement. As a result of increased investment in specialist workforce and equipment, we expect to realise significant benefits to patients. We are focused on pathways, including breast cancer services, that have recently been challenged by an increase in referrals, staff sickness and infection control measures.
“Consequently a new Breast Unit, supported by an immediate £1m investment in a specialist cancer clinical workforce, is currently being commissioned for use at Royal Glamorgan Hospital. We are sorry for the anxiety that waiting times cause, and remain committed to reducing delays and improving services locally.”
