Rebecca Buchan: Myself and many others are going private in the face of NHS waiting times – but what about those who can’t?

About a year ago I took out an insurance policy with a private healthcare provider.

I consider myself hugely fortunate, in that in my almost 40 years, I have never required serious medical attention.

However people close to me have, and they have not always received the care they need, when they needed it, from the NHS.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands. And now, at the very least, I have a bit more peace of mind.

This is also something I consider myself very lucky to be able to do. For so many, it is not an option.

But when faced with the prospect of falling ill and having to join the longest waiting list in the country to even be assessed, I felt there was no alternative for me.

It started a few years ago when I found a lump on my neck. A trip to my GP (who I swear is the best on this planet) told me it was a reactive lymph node… But because it had been that way for some months, it was best to get checked out.

A referral was made and I was to expect a letter to get an ultrasound.

Many more months passed. During this time the lump remained. Sometimes when I used to sit and prod it, anxiously, I would convince myself it was growing, and getting harder.

And the only thing I could do to reassure myself was say that, if it was really serious, they’d have seen me by now.

But the truth is, no one knew if it was serious or not. It was taking time because I was just one of many thousands of people also waiting to be seen for their own lumps and bumps.

Ten months later, I received a letter to say I would not be getting an ultrasound initially, I would need to first have an appointment with a consultant who would assess me.

The process of NHS wait times alone is enough to make anyone sick

The process from there was smooth and quick. It resulted in a five-minute appointment with a surgeon and many students who felt my neck to tell me I had nothing to worry about. And there would be no follow-up tests.

Now, I happen to trust that he knew what he was talking about, but to this day, the lump is still there.

What that experience made me realise is that the pure process of the wait alone was enough to make someone ill.

Shortly after my experience a relative of a close friend of mine was diagnosed with breast cancer. She can not fault the treatment she received from the NHS but in order to be diagnosed within a reasonable amount of time, she had to travel to Falkirk because the waiting times in Grampian were so long.

And just this week I had dinner with my friend who told me she had been to Albyn Hospital for a private brain scan that morning because she had started to experience a lack of sensation in her lower body.

Appointments with her GP led her to be told she would be on the waiting list for a scan for some months and so she decided to go private.

When she received her first MRI scan, just weeks later, she was told that while what she was experiencing was likely caused by a virus she caught, there was the potential it could be MS or encephalitis.

P&J survey results show loud and clear waiting times getting too much

Both of these conditions are serious and potentially life-threatening.

This week the Press and Journal revealed the results of a survey in which our readers shared their experiences of the NHS. What was generally loud and clear, was that when in the system the care from the staff was exemplary. But the waiting times are getting too much to bear.

Myself and many others are going private in the face of NHS waiting times – but what about those who can’t?

NHS Grampian is critically underfunded. It does its best with what it can but at the end of the day until meaningful action is taken to readdress this it will continue to feel like those living in the north-east are battling against a postcode lottery.

Falling sick is one thing completely out of anyone’s control, and the state of the health service does nothing to help alleviate the turmoil people are going through during some of their darkest times.

While there is no easy solution it is imperative the Scottish Government takes note of how bad the situation is here. It is literally a matter of life and death.

Rebecca Buchan is deputy head of news and sport for The Press and Journal and Evening Express.