‘I waited 10 months for a routine hospital appointment

Pippa Dungey, last year, when she went to her doctor, who suffered from drowsiness in both legs, was told she met her. waiting list 10 months old for specialist neurology services.

Two months later, 25 -year -old trainee lawyer from Southeast London ended A & E He can’t walk.

Dungey first went to see his doctor in September last year and was directed to a neurologist, but was warned to wait for a long wait for an appointment.

While waiting for him Symptoms He got worse and was so bad because he couldn’t handle his right leg and was forced to drag around.

Asked for help A & E And his doctor, but He came back and said he had to wait for his appointment.

But finally had to go back A & EHe was accepted for a week and could not walk and then diagnosed multiple sclerosis (MS).

There are about 150,000 people living with MS, a condition that affects the nerves in the brain and spinal cord chord. Seeing people in different ways, including balance, memory and emotions.

Dungey said: ım I was really worried until November. I couldn’t raise my right leg and I was just dragging, it was really scary.

“Later I had an emergency appointment with my GP and they directed me back to A & E. Fortunately, this time the doctor accepted me and was finally diagnosed [with MS] But I couldn’t walk in the hospital for a week because I didn’t get a neurology appointment. “

Dungey was one of the hundreds of thousands of people waiting for NHS neurology services – 6,175 have been waiting for more than a year.

MS Society warned that people living with MS have waited for an average of five months for their first neurology appointments in 2023-24 and an increase in average waiting time in 2019-20.

Philanthropy warned that MS patients left on a waiting, under the risk of olmayan irreversible disability ”. state So far, he has overlooked neurological conditions in his 10 -year plan.

Since A & E has been discharged, MS Dungey said he was still trying to regain his ability to walk.

According to a study conducted by the MS Association of 600 patients in the UK, one of the seven people had an unplanned hospital acceptance. He warned that about one out of five should travel more than 20 miles for the hospital appointments.

MS Society Policy Manager Peter Lloyd said: “This report draws a sober picture of hospital maintenance for people with MS – the results can be huge.

“Neurologists and MS nurses are not enough to keep up with a tremendous coercion and to keep up with the increasing demand. This means that people expect longer and longer for basic support such as initial diagnostic or planned care – preventing prevented emergencies.

“The NHS 10 -year plan aims to address some of these problems, which is encouraging. But there is still a certain plan for one of the six people who live in a neurological situation in the UK. So people with MS and other conditions can take care that they need without delay.”

Health and Social Care Department was approached for comment.