Patient waiting for reconstruction surgery after cancer recovery has operation cancelled due to junior doctor strike
When Jackie Pugh was given her date for her operation for breast reconstruction it was as if the final piece the jigsaw to her cancer recovery was being put in place.
But now she has been told that the junior doctor strikes mean that the surgery, due to have taken place on Friday has been cancelled.
The decision has left her upset and frustrated and she says she fears hundreds more patients waiting for operations will have had their expectations similarly crushed.
She is even more anxious to get the operation done having had the dreadful new that her husband is now to have chemotherapy after his diagnosis of lymphoma.
Jackie from Four Crosses near Oswestry, had a mastectomy in December 2019 after discovering she had breast cancer.
She had to endure chemotherapy and radiotherapy - having her last bout of chemo just before the Covid lockdown.
The 55-year-old then had to wait 18 months until she could have a referral for the reconstruction surgery and was eventually given the April 14 date for the operation at Wiston hospital on Merseyside.
"It has been a brutal time and having this surgery would been the final step in my recovery," she said.
"I am so very grateful for my cancer treatment and my recovery back to health. But to have that surgery postponed and not to be given a new date is soul destroying."
Jacky said it was vital that she was now strong to help her husband through his treatment.
"He did so much for me and the family when I had my chemo. He did everything for us and now I want to be there for him. "
She said the junior doctors' demand for a 35 per cent pay rise was, in her eyes pretty unrealistic.
"There are I am sure many, many more people out there who are also having operations cancelled because of the strikes. I just wonder how the doctors would feel if it were a member of their family who could not have their operation that they had waiting so long for."
"However I do believe that NHS staff including doctors could be paid a better wage if the Government sorted out the NHS properly."
"It has got to be managed better and the public need their say on how the money is spent."
