"Ongoing Orthopaedic Care at Royal Gwent Hospital"

After suffering with knee pain for +/-5 years I eventually had a Bi-lateral Knee Arthroscopy earlier this year. The procedure improved my right knee, but hasn't cured it, but my left knee is far, far worse as a result of the procedure. Following 2 subsequent visits and an MRI on the left knee I have been told that there is nothing more surgically that can be done for me and I have been referred to a hospital 25 miles away for a Rheumatological Review for which there is a 9 month waiting list!

The surgeon and his team basically told me to grin and put up with it; inferred that my pain threshold was too low and that, because I find exercising difficult, I should starve myself to lose some weight although I am not obese.

I feel that I have been condemned to suffer ever increasing pain and immobility.

Currently it is difficult to sit and rise from a chair, climb and descend stairs and it is impossible to kneel. A knee replacement will not be considered until I have "bone-on-bone" pain and immobility.

I do not consider this treatment to be sympathetic, patient centric or at all what the NHS in Wales should be like and I am definitely not alone in this respect.