"Cancer journey"

I am writing to share our disappointment in the service we have received regarding our mother's cancer journey.

Our mother first attended her GP in August 2024 due to heath concerns. The GP sent a referral to the NHS (which we have been since told was for suspected cervical cancer) to request further exploratory testing. She did not receive an appointment until November 2024.

Her appointment was unable to be concluded due to severe symptoms and her overall experience at this appointment was poor. There was a lack of communication and poor patient care. Our mother was then told she would receive an appointment within 10 weeks for an exploratory test under anesthesia.

Our mother continued to experience symptoms and attended her doctors on multiple occasions but we were told their hands were tied and we continued to wait for an appointment. We attended A&E twice but she was sent home with no advice or suggestion that she required urgent care. Although, all the symptoms she was experiencing were the highlighted symptoms of cervical cancer. We contacted the NHS to chase the appointment in January to be told someone in a similar situation was waiting 18 weeks. On a further phone call we discovered she wasn't even on the pre-assessment list. As a family, due to our mother's presentation and symptoms we felt we could not wait this long and went to the private sector. Fortunately, we were in a position to do so.

We were seen within a week and she had a diagnosis. As a family we were devastated to learn her diagnosis and felt completely let down by the NHS.

Our mother's private consultant and GP pushed to have her seen on the NHS and we received an appointment with the NHS consultant within 2 days. She was referred for an urgent MRI scan. We were told this would be completed within 1-2 weeks.

I contacted the MRI appointments to chase this to be told she had an appointment for nearly four weeks time. I asked for her to be placed on the cancellation list given the urgency.

On sleeping on this, I was deeply unhappy with the waiting times and contacted MRI services again. I explained my mother's experience and diagnosis. We were then told there is a urgency scale and they would upgrade her and she was given appointment for 2 days time. We as a family struggle to understand why she wasn't on the highest urgency list given her diagnosis. Again, it just ignites frustration and anger at the non-urgency in her care.

We now have everything we need for her to be provided with the urgent care she needs. However, now need to wait on the consultant to arrange for our mother to be seen at an MDT before treatment will begin. We have tried again to push this and will continue to fight and advocate for the care our mother urgently requires.

We are deeply dissatisfied and frustrated at the never ending waiting times. Her journey is significantly out of timescales in relation to the cancer targets set out by the Scottish Government.

We as a family feel disheartened as each time we seem to make progress we are met with another barrier. We have had to fight endlessly to get her the health care she needs and is entitled to and unfortunately continue to do so. Our overall experience thus far has been full of worry, fear, anger, and frustration. The system is not working through no fault of the staff but to be told on many occasions from several staff within the NHS that 'our hands are tied' is simply not good enough.

We remain deeply dissatisfied at the care she has received. We as a family feel our mother has been completely let down.

We feel that things need to change this should not be the experience people receive, especially when it's regarded urgent care that can significantly increase someone's chance of survival. Cancer is a horrible disease, and individuals have enough of a fight trying to overcome this disease without experiencing significant barriers to the heath care they are entitled to.