A 48-YEAR-OLD man with two brain aneurysms who almost died from blood poisoning must wait two years for an “urgent” appointment with a brain specialist – by which time he says he “could be dead”.
Just weeks after the north’s health service received a £50 million bailout from the DUP-Tory deal to reduce waiting lists, it has emerged that east Belfast man James Clarke is among almost 1,300 red-flag patients facing delays to see a consultant neurologist at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald.
Speaking to The Irish News, Mr Clarke also revealed that during the last cash injection into the north’s NHS, he and his wife were sent in a Value Cabs taxi to Dublin for a ‘second opinion” at a private clinic – where the meter was kept running and the driver took them home.
The former chef has just been discharged from the Mater Hospital in Belfast where he was admitted in the intensive care unit for sepsis blood poisoning.
Mr Clarke, a father-of-two who stopped working four years ago due to his failing health, said he owes his life to a nurse during a routine eye appointment.
“I also have diabetes and went up to the Mater outpatients for an eye appointment,” he said.
“As I waiting for the doctor a nurse took my blood pressure. She was worried about my skin colour and referred me to A&E.
“I told her I would walk across the road to the main hospital but she insisted on putting me in a wheelchair and wheeled me across the zebra crossing on the Crumlin Road.
“Doctors rushed me through A&E and I was transferred to ICU with sepsis. Without that nurse I wouldn’t be here, as I wanted to go home that day.”
The Mater consultant treating Mr Clarke said he needed an urgent referral to a neurologist after a scan discovered he had also suffered a mini-stroke – known as an ischaemic attack – caused by a temporary blockage of blood flowing to the brain.
The South Eastern Trust, which runs the Ulster Hospital, last week told Mr Clarke that he it would take 103 weeks before he is seen by a specialist for an assessment.
Mr Clarke said he knew there would be a waiting list but was shocked by its length.
“Over the past four years my health has taken a serious nosedive... I am on a lot of medication and I now need a stick to walk. In 2013 I started getting these thunderclaps of headaches and the aneurysms were finally diagnosed.
“Since the sepsis and mini-stroke I have become weaker. I accept there are waiting lists but you could be dead in two years.
“I had bacterial meningitis when I was 20 and was lucky to survive.
“Every time I’ve been in hospital I’ve had the best of care. I just can’t understand how they had the money to get a taxi to send me and wife to Dublin for a private scan four years ago and now it’s come to this.”
A spokeswoman for the South Eastern Trust confirmed there is a high demand for its neurology services, with more than 3,200 patients on waiting lists – of which 1,283 are classed as urgent.
“The trust has recently appointed a new consultant neurologist which will help to reduce waiting times,” she said.
“We continue to work towards reducing waiting times by introducing initiatives such as a rapid response neurology clinic and a number of headache clinics.”
