Stranraer woman says she has 'excruciating pain' as waiting lists rise amid NHS funding crisis
Video report by ITV News reporter Barnaby Papadopulos
A woman living in Portpatrick on the south-western coast of Scotland says she's living with "excruciating" pain after months on a waiting list for hip and knee operations.
Dorothy McKnight told ITV News she's been prescribed heavy painkillers to deal with conditions that have severely limited her mobility.
"I've never known pain like this," she said.
But despite the intense physical pain - and accompanying impact that is having on her mental health - Ms McKnight said she wasn't expecting an operation this year.
A letter sent to her by the NHS, seen by ITV News, reads that she has been "listed for routine surgery, and the current waiting time is likely to be in excess of a year."
"I am unable to provide an exact time frame as to when you will be seen as our waiting lists are constantly changing, as patients are seen and new patients added," the letter said.
Over the phone, Ms McKnight said staff told her that 'excess' means she could be on the waiting list for somewhere between fifteen and eighteen months.
"It is very, very frustrating to know that my situation is only going to get worse within a year," she said.
"I've never felt like this in my life and all of a sudden I've just gone downhill. My mobility is zilch."
Orthopaedic waiting list 'triples' in four years
According to data obtained by think tank Reform Scotland in November 2023, the number of people in Dumfries and Galloway who need orthopaedic surgery more than tripled between 2019 and 2023.
At the time of access, the data showed that the average time patients in the region were waiting for an operation in 2023 was around 35 weeks - a significant jump from the 14 week average in 2019, but still less than the estimate offered to Ms McKnight.
In the Scottish Borders, the number of people on a waiting list for an orthopaedic operation more than doubled between 2019 and 2023.
Meanwhile health boards in the south of Scotland are under considerable financial pressure, with both NHS Dumfries and Galloway and NHS Borders suggesting that cuts will have to be made to services in order to get on top of considerable budget deficits.
On Monday, the Scottish Government also announced a freeze on all new NHS building projects for at least two years, a move described by one MSP in the borders as "deeply alarming."
Having already invested in a number of home improvements, such as a stairlift and a grab rail in the shower, as well as taken a private dentist after her NHS surgery closed down, Ms McKnight said going private for her operations just isn't feasible.
"I would love to if I had the money," she said. "I'm quite sure I would use it because I want a quality of life, but it's going to cost me about £36,000."
"Where am I, as a pensioner, supposed to find that kind of money?"
"The NHS was supposed to be for people like me, who've paid in all their lives."
NHS Dumfries and Galloway said it couldn't comment on individual cases, and added that the board was "conscious that we continue to have a large number of outstanding procedures."
In a statement a Scottish Government spokesperson said: "We are absolutely committed to driving down waiting times. We have increased investment in frontline NHS boards by more than half a billion pounds in the draft Budget - a real terms increase of almost 3%.
We are working with NHS Boards to reduce long waits, which have been exacerbated by the impacts of the pandemic."
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