Northern Ireland

'I'm fighting for ordinary working people': Pensioner (77) who gave five decades to health service tells why she is going to court over waiting lists

May Kitchen said she was forced to pay privately for her medical treatment. Picture by Mal McCann
May Kitchen said she was forced to pay privately for her medical treatment. Picture by Mal McCann May Kitchen said she was forced to pay privately for her medical treatment. Picture by Mal McCann

"I'M fighting for ordinary working people."

May Kitchen worked in Northern Ireland's hospitals until she was 71, only giving up the job she loved because her husband James needed her full-time nursing care as he succumbed to the ravages of cancer.

Bitterly disappointed after being "let down" by the health service she dedicated five decades to, the 77-year-old is one of two women taking legal action to challenge the region's "dire" hospital waiting times.

Northern Ireland's delays are now among the worst in Europe, with tens of thousands more patients languishing on waiting lists than this time last year as hospitals continue to move further away from diagnostic and treatment targets.

Yesterday was another stage in the judicial review efforts of Mrs Kitchen and Eileen Wilson (47), a mother-of-six who has been waiting almost four years for a neurology appointment.

The court heard, via videolink, a scheduled review of the cases - the first legal action of its kind in the UK.

"I nursed for over 40 years. I was an auxiliary nurse. I just couldn't not work," Mrs Kitchen said.

"I loved my patients. I went back when I retired. I got my pension when I was 60, but I went back banking (freelance shifts organised via trusts)."

So strong is her sense of vocation that she even breaks off during the interview to offer solicitous advice for a family member mentioned in passing.

"I absolutely loved my work. The only reason I stopped working was to come home to look after my husband who had cancer. I nursed him for three years. It was very, very hard."

When the north Belfast woman began suffering from cataracts she said she initially found it hard to even get onto a waiting list, as it was suggested glasses would help.

In the end Mrs Kitchen's optician wrote a formal recommendation and she was added to the waiting list.

That initial battle may have been over but the wait had just begun and, as with so many patients in her position, time was against her.

By last summer she had already been on the surgeon's list for a year and been told there were up to three more ahead of her.

In the meantime her isolation was increasing. During a trip to a regular group activity on Newtownards Road, where she had found company after losing her husband, "I walked into a telephone pole".

"I was walking into walls. I'm a very independent person and I want to go out. I find it helps me with the loneliness. It's dreadful living on your own, people don't realise.

"I like to keep fit, I go to the gym. You've no idea how bad it was. That's why I'm on antidepressants. I've never got over that."

Her distress heightened by the pandemic's enforced lockdown, she had begun paying into a private health insurance policy and in September underwent her first surgery privately, with the cataract on her second eye removed in December.

The relief is huge, but her anger remains.

"The system is broken," she said.

"What they have put me through - no-one out there is listening to the ordinary, working people. I've had my operation, but today it's them that I'm fighting for as well.

"I'm an ambassador for the working people, all those elderly people. This is not the health service I worked for in the beginning."

Her solicitor Ciaran O'Hare said the cases, which are being heard together, are "highly significant and important proceedings" for a system "in dire need of urgent and drastic reform".

"My clients believe that the problems within the NHS are only going to get worse and these legal proceedings are imperative to show that our healthcare system is unlawful because it does not comply with bare minimum legal standards.

"My clients believe that the evidence shows that Northern Ireland waiting lists are simply unacceptable and people are suffering and dying without receiving the care and treatment they require."

A Department of Health spokeswoman said it would be "inappropriate... to comment on a matter which is currently before the courts for consideration, however, we have repeatedly stated that the current waiting times for elective care are unacceptable".