Wait for surgery on triple hernia goes on for Cheshire man after six years on the list

ITV Granada Reports correspondent Mel Barham caught up with Winston and his hope that 2025 may provide the surgery he urgently needs

A former dairy farmer told he was in line for an operation after developing a small hernia following bowel surgery is still waiting for his procedure - almost six years later.

Winston Baldwin has been living with a triple hernia since 2019, which has now grown so large he can now barely walk and needs a wheelchair to get around.

He has faced constant delays, made worse by the pandemic, and says his situation is becoming increasingly difficult, leaving him without hope.

After repeated cancellations he now lives in a care home.

"Its doubled in size in this last month, that's how big it is, and if it keeps on growing it will burst and that's curtains," he says.

Triple hernia patient blames Covid delays after being told too late to operate
Winston struggles to walk or get around without a wheel chair.

Winston has been told he now needs an operation on his heart first to enable him to survive surgery on his triple hernia, but has a four month wait for the next cardiac consultation.

He is feeling increasingly desperate: "The wait has been insufferable and I've been hoping from May 2019 it will get done and it didn't and its grown bigger."

He adds: "I've lived in hope, hope that one day I can go back to my life.

"I feel let down from the word go because I was promised an operation.

"The NHS should have taken me seriously and they haven't."

Winston simply wants his life back Credit: ITV Granada

He finds it a struggle to breathe or get out of his wheelchair, and he says this must be the year he gets his operation

"I don't feel they are listening...I need help, I need attention, thats what I've needed from 2019.

"Its a downward spiral that I'm living on, and I'm living on borrowed time...I fear for my life, I fear for my my future."

Winston feels his quality of life has been destroyed, and he just wants it back.

His story has been featured on ITV Granada Reports five times, ever since his treatment was delayed in 2019 during Covid.

Winston now lives in a care home after his hernia became so big he found getting around difficult.

During the General Election campaigning now Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Winston's then five year wait for a hernia operation was a "shocking indictment" of NHS waiting lists and the longest he has heard of.

He personally vowed to help sort out waiting times to help his plight.

Speaking at the time, he said it was "appalling".

"I would say to Winston, it's appalling you've been waiting for five years for a hernia operation," he said in June 2024.

"That's one of the longest waits I've heard of even in this campaign, it's a shocking indictment of just how bad this government has allowed the waiting lists to get.

"Now we will on day one roll up our sleeves and start to repair that by putting in place extra NHS staff to get those appointments done soo that Winston can get the operation he desperately needs."