"Too long a wait for urgent gynaecology referral."

I wondered if you might be able to help me.

In June my GP referred me as an urgent suspected cancer patient to the gynaecological department and told me that I should be seen within two weeks. I phoned the booking department last week and they told me that they’ve received the referral and that it is in the urgent queue but that there is such a backlog of such referrals that as yet there is no date for me, that it definitely won’t be before the latter half of July and may not even be then. I said that I was prepared to travel elsewhere but they, and the GP, said that they could not refer outwith the area.

In 2013 I presented with an HPV driven squamous cell cancer that had spread to the lymph nodes in my neck. I eventually started my treatment, chemoradiation following surgery, six months later after very much persistence by me in requesting appointments. On that occasion the tumour that was removed from my neck was a secondary tumour and the primary source was never identified.

Once I finally got on track with diagnosis and treatment for my throat cancer, my treatment was superb. The oncologist was hugely kind, sensitive, open and, I felt, extremely skilled at her job. The staff in the radiotherapy suite were also encouraging, friendly and down to earth in a way that made the whole thing as manageable as possible. 

The problem was getting started.

Now, four years after the end of that treatment, I have a ‘thing’ in my vulva. It’s been there for some time but at the end of May it changed and became very angry, possibly as a result of abrasion caused by intercourse. All the time now I am feeling disablingly run down/fatigued, just awful. I am somebody with a very positive mental outlook but I am finding it impossible to do more than the very basics of living.

I am very keen to see somebody as this could be a return of the HPV squamous cell carcinoma and it could be the original site of the primary which was never treated with radiation as my throat was the target then.

It seems to me to be awful to be making folks who are at serious risk wait for so long. Why can’t they go somewhere else where the waiting list is not so long? This is a dangerous situation and lives will be lost as a result.

I would be very grateful for your help.