THOUSANDS of patients are waiting in pain for more than a year for scans to diagnose their illnesses. Some are becoming so frustrated that they are paying to have tests carried out privately at their local National Health Service hospital.

The delays, which can run to as long as two years, affect conditions such as multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, strokes and orthopaedic problems.

Two weeks ago it emerged that Sarah Clarke, a 26 year-old publishing executive, had died after spending eight months on an NHS waiting list for a scan that would have enabled doctors better to treat her epilepsy.

Since Clarke’s story appeared in The Sunday Times, numerous other patients have come forward to detail how they too suffered unacceptable delays. Liz Aldridge, a former theatre technician from Derby who suffers from degenerative disc disease, waited two years for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan to assess the condition of her spine at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary.

Aldridge, 45, said: “I expected there to be a wait, but not two years. The situation is ridiculous. I have spoken to lots of people who are paying for MRI scans to get them early.”

One such patient is Keith Taylor, a retired teacher from Derby who suffers from tremors in his hands, a condition believed to be linked to a neurological problem. Taylor was told by Derbyshire Royal Infirmary he faced a year-long wait for an MRI scan but because he paid about £400 for his treatment at the same hospital, he got the test within weeks.

Taylor, 72, said: “I went to exactly the same unit as I would have done a year later on the NHS. I was fortunate that I had the money to pay for this scan.”

Dianne Prescott, director of service development for Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Royal Infirmary, admitted waiting times for routine MRI scans at the hospital were “unacceptable” but said the trust had brought them down to 50 weeks. The hospital acquired a second scanner in March and, with help from mobile scanners, plans eventually to bring waiting times down to one month.

Michael Warner, 47, from Sheffield, who was told he would need to wait 12 months for an MRI scan to check for epilepsy, has also decided to pay for the test. Warner’s consultant, Richard Grunewald, a neurologist at the Royal Hallamshire hospital, said: “Having to wait up to a year for a routine MRI scan is not unusual.”

Patients suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS) can expect to wait for at least a year for an MRI scan, despite health service guidelines stating such patients should have diagnostic tests carried out within six weeks of seeing a neurologist.

Mike O’Donovan, chief executive of the MS Society, said: “MS patients typically wait 12 months for a scan, sometimes more. These patients will know something serious is wrong but need to wait a year to find out, which will greatly add to their suffering.”

An audit by the Royal College of Physicians has highlighted dangerous delays in urgent scans for stroke victims. The study found more than 40% of patients were not given the test within 24 hours, the limit specified in college guidelines.

Joe Korner, spokesman for the Stroke Association, said: “Brain scans are vital to enable accurate diagnosis of the stroke and to start essential treatment. The quicker someone gets a diagnosis and treatment the better their chance of survival and making a full recovery.”

Last year Sonia Hobbs, 78, did not get a computerised tomography (CT) scan until 3½ days after she was admitted to Glan Clwyd hospital in Rhyl with a suspected stroke. She died a week after admission. Her daughter-in-law, Julia Hobbs, said: “I think she might have had a better outcome if she had been given a scan earlier.”

Patients at one in five NHS trusts are waiting more than a year for non-urgent MRI scans while more than one in seven trusts have reported waiting times for CT scans of six months or more, according to a Liberal Democrat study.

A Sunday Times reader living in Germany wrote to say: “I had eight scans within 48 hours, and another four scans within two weeks. The mere thought of being treated in Britain now fills me with horror.”

A lack of radiologists to interpret the scans and radiographers to operate the scanners is blamed for the logjam. Last night the Department of Health said: “It is a problem we recognise and we are spending £1 billion to buy scanning capacity from the private sector so that by 2008 nobody will wait more than 18 weeks.”

One company the government has employed is Alliance Medical, at a cost of £90m, to provide mobile scanners parked outside hospitals. However, documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show strategic health authorities across England have raised concerns about the quality of some Alliance Medical scans or are refusing to use the 12 mobile scanners provided by the company.

A spokesman for Alliance Medical acknowledged that there had been teething problems when the contract was introduced last summer but said these had been resolved by December. “With regard to quality, Alliance Medical scans are read by two radiologists, which does not happen within the NHS,” he said.

Additional reporting: Chris Whyatt

MOTHERS SUE OVER EPILEPSY DRUG

Nearly 100 mothers are launching a multi-million-pound legal action in the High Court over a drug they claim caused severe birth defects in their children.

The group action centres on the effects of Epilim, an anti-epilepsy pill sold by Sanofi-Aventis, the world’s third-largest drugs company. Lawyers for the women, who took the drug during pregnancy, claim it is linked to spina bifida, autism, deformed limbs and severe learning difficulties.

The company denies failing to warn patients of the risks and says the defects could be linked to other causes. David Body, the lawyer dealing with the group action, said that under the 1987 Consumer Protection Act claimants did not have to prove negligence by the company.

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