Woman still waiting for knee surgery despite Ombudsman intervention

Emily Price

A woman has endured more than three years of waiting for a knee replacement after being removed from the surgical waiting list without being told, reinstated following an Ombudsman investigation, and then told months later that she was “not on anybody’s list”.

The case has raised serious questions about accountability within NHS Wales and what happens after an Ombudsman’s remedy is said to have been implemented.

Joanne Roberts from Abergele has been waiting for a knee replacement through Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) since March 2023.

But more than three years later, she is still in pain with severely restricted mobility, using crutches and sometimes a wheelchair.

Joanne told Nation.Cymru the wait has been “particularly distressing” because she discovered through her own enquiries that she had been removed from the surgical waiting list without being told.

The discovery prompted her to make an official complaint to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales.

The independent watchdog concluded that BCUHB’s service had fallen below the expected standard and that Joanne had suffered an injustice.

The Ombudsman ordered the health board to issue a written apology and to reinstate Joanne to the
waiting list in the same place had she not been removed.

BCUHB subsequently wrote to Joanne saying, “Your position on the list will be protected so you do not have to restart the waiting time from zero.”

However, months later, when Joanne telephoned Orthopaedics herself, she was told she was “not on anybody’s list currently” and that it was not known who had taken over her care.

For Joanne, it meant once again being confronted with uncertainty about her treatment only because she had continued asking questions herself.

BCUHB later told her her that attempts to refer her to consultants across its east and west sites had not been supported because of “capacity issues”, and that she had been referred outside the health board.

Joanne’s husband, Mark, says the case raises serious questions about accountability, including whether there are independent checks to make sure an Ombudsman’s remedy has actually been carried out when an NHS body says it has.

Joanne has continued seeking answers from the health board about what happened to her March 2023 waiting-list position, which BCUHB had expressly told her was restored and protected.

Earlier this month, she wrote to BCUHB asking a series of questions about her referral and what had happened to her existing protected waiting-list position.

The health board responded saying her concerns had been escalated to the medical director and senior management team and that, on their advice, she had been referred to the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital.

However, the health board did not answer the specific waiting-list questions Joanne had asked.

Speaking to Nation.Cymru, she said: “The last few years have been incredibly difficult. I have been living with significant pain and very restricted mobility while waiting for an operation I desperately need, but what has made it even harder is the constant uncertainty about what is actually happening with my care.

“When the Ombudsman found that I had been removed from the surgical waiting list without being told, and BCUHB subsequently assured me that I had been reinstated and that my position would be protected, I genuinely believed that at least that part of what had happened had finally been put right.

“To then have to make my own enquiries again, only to be told by Orthopaedics that I was ‘not on anybody’s list currently’ and that they didn’t know who had taken over my care, was devastating.

“I couldn’t understand how that could happen after I had been told in writing that my position had been restored and protected.

“Even after the recent referral to Oswestry, I have specifically asked BCUHB to tell me what surgical waiting list I am on, what date my waiting time is recorded from, which service is responsible for my knee-replacement pathway and what has happened to the waiting-list position they told me was protected.

“I still haven’t been given those answers.

“I am exhausted and frustrated by it all. I shouldn’t have to keep investigating my own treatment pathway just to find out where I stand.

“More than anything, I want somebody to give me a clear and honest explanation of what has happened to the waiting-list position I was told had been restored.”

Joanne said she is also worried that she might not be the only patient this has happened to.

She said: “I don’t know whether there are other people in the same position and I don’t want to make claims that I can’t prove.

“But I can’t help wondering whether there could be patients who believe they are safely waiting for surgery without knowing that something has happened to their pathway.

“If there are, I think that needs to be found out.

“I’m not asking for special treatment and I’m certainly not asking to be put ahead of somebody with a greater clinical need.

“I just want the treatment I need, an honest explanation of what has happened to me, and reassurance that other patients aren’t going through the same thing.”

Naomi Holder, Interim Deputy Executive Nursing Director at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, said: “Due to patient confidentiality, we are unable to comment publicly on the care or treatment provided to any individual.

“We have responded directly to Mrs Roberts regarding concerns she has raised, most recently in correspondence sent to her at the end of August.”

Leader of the Welsh Conservatives and Clwyd MS Darren Millar said Joanne’s case highlighted serious dysfunction within Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

He said: “That the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board can’t even reinstate someone onto a waiting list for treatment after the intervention of the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales shows just how dysfunctional it is.

“This case lays to bare the human impact of excessive waiting times on patients in north Wales, and it also demonstrates that the waiting time figures reported by the health board each month cannot be trusted, even after the assurances provided by the previous Welsh Government earlier this year.

“We are now in the 12 year of special measures in north Wales, they clearly aren’t working. It’s high time the Welsh Government acknowledged its inability to turn things around, and commissioned an independent inquiry into the failings in the NHS in north Wales.”

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