"The spreading verrucas"

A few years ago I got a verruca under my foot. I went to see my GP to see if they could chemically burn it or refer me to someone who could. They said I first had to try and get rid of it by myself, suggested I try something I could get from boots and give it a go.

I tried and it didn’t help. I returned to see my GP who told me to keep trying. I tried several times and although I kept going back and ask if I could be referred to someone who would know what they were doing, they said I had to first keep trying on my own.

Eventually, after a few months, the verruca had become verrucas… I went again and the GP said he would try himself before referring me to a podiatrist. I had to go for a course of treatments where he tried to freeze the verrucas. Eventually this also didn’t work and he was convinced of the need for a podiatrist.

By this point I had a lot of verrucas under my feet and he suggested I use a “self-referral form” for a podiatrist. I wanted to shout… there was a self-referral form and they never told me… I filled in the form, handed it in and it was months before I got an appointment with a podiatrist.

I did another course of treatment with her which lasted months during which she tried to freeze them but couldn’t because they had become so large. After a course of about 6 appointments she gave up as there was no improvement and said she would refer me to a dermatologist because they had become too widespread to be cut out. Six months later, I was still waiting for my appointment.

I have now moved overseas so I will no longer be able to get my appointment and will have to start from scratch with a much more serious problem. It’s been years of frustration that started with a simple verruca they could have helped me get rid of instead of letting it spread into a massive problem that now means I’m in (manageable) pain whenever I walk barefoot.

I understand that in the big scheme of things verrucas are not a debilitating condition but it’s still something you need support for and could be solved easily but it’s something the NHS in my opinion has proved completely inadequate on.