Grandmother slams bureaucrats as early operation bid backfires

A GRANDMOTHER faces months in "excruciating" pain after a mix-up she blames on a bureaucratic muddle by the NHS.

Jenny Whitehead was diagnosed with a cyst on her spine last year but efforts to tackle the problem using painkilling injections failed.

She was informed in December she would have to wait nearly five months until May for a NHS appointment to see a specialist – but could have a private consultation with same surgeon at the Yorkshire Clinic in Bingley, West Yorkshire, the following week.

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The 64-year-old decided to opt for the appointment and was told she would need surgery to tackle the problem, assuming she would go on an NHS waiting list.

So she was horrified to be told in February she had forfeited her right to NHS care by taking the private appointment – and must now start the process for NHS treatment from the beginning, which means the operation may not be carried out until September.

Mrs Whitehead, a retired guest house owner, of Haworth, said she would never have taken the private appointment had she known it could affect her chances of NHS treatment.

She has the option of a private operation next month but it will cost between 8,000 and 10,000.

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The problem is affecting her sciatic nerve, leaving her in terrible pain. She can no longer walk uphill, preventing her from walking her dogs or working as a volunteer in the garden at the Bront Parsonage Museum.

Mrs Whitehead said she had been given different "excuses" by managers at NHS Bradford and Airedale for refusing to pay for the surgery at the Yorkshire Clinic.

"Because I'd taken up a private appointment they said that excluded me from any NHS treatment for this condition," she said. "But if that's the case, why wasn't I told?

"It was a real shock when I found out. I rang up because I'd not heard when my appointment for the operation would be and they more or less disowned me. Now I'm not even on the waiting list for the NHS and will have to go back to my GP and start again.

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"The pain is really excruciating like the worst kind of toothache. It affects your daily life – it's not as if I can put it out of my head and forget about it. I can't walk the dog any more. I just can't carry on my normal life and what's so dispiriting is that I can't see me having an operation in the near future."

She has another NHS appointment with her specialist at the Yorkshire Clinic this weekend. After that, she will decide whether to press ahead with private surgery or opt back into the NHS – although the operation will now be carried out in Leeds.

She added: "I just feel very let down by the NHS and I believe there are other people like me in this hideous position."

Her son Tim Whitehead said his mother was in a "terrible situation".

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"As time has marched on the painkillers have become ineffective. She struggles with many tasks we take for granted and lately I have often found her in tears racked with crippling pain," he said.

A spokeswoman for NHS Bradford and Airedale said: "We would like to apologise to Mrs Whitehead for any distress and inconvenience caused.

"She has raised a number of issues with us and we are looking into these as a matter of urgency and so we can advise her how to get the NHS treatment she needs."

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