A father-of-two from Lanarkshire has been waiting six months in agonising pain for treatment for a brain tumour and may have to wait another four months. Graham Scott, 45, was diagnosed with a meningioma – a non-cancerous but potentially life-threatening tumour – in January but has yet to see a specialist.
His wife Jackie, 45, has written to Scottish Health Minister Michael Matheson in a desperate bid for intervention. The NHS worker's family say his condition has deteriorated, with agonising headaches, blurred vision and seizures. Jackie told how she found her husband collapsed over a fence on December 29, leading to his diagnosis at Wishaw General Hospital.
Despite being marked as 'urgent', his referral to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow has seen repeated delays. Jackie said waiting times have slipped from 16 weeks to November, with the family told a surgeon was off sick. 'The last time I called, Graham was 20th on the list but now he is 26th. How urgent do you have to be to be seen?' she said.
Graham, who has also suffered short-term memory loss and shooting pains, has spoken of harming himself due to the pain. The health minister's office apologised, blaming Covid and winter pressures. Labour's health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie called the case 'an indication of the crisis facing the NHS', while Lib-Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton warned delays could turn a non-lethal condition into a lethal one.
An NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde spokesman said they do not comment on individual cases but apologised for delays, adding that clinicians prioritise patients based on urgent need.
