Caller shares tragic NHS story as Labour announces plans to get healthcare 'back on its feet'
22 May 2023, 11:31 | Updated: 22 May 2023, 12:50
Caller's message after wife died of cancer.mp4
This caller shared the heartbreaking story of losing his wife to cancer after delays in finding out the results of her scans.
Harry in Ealing told Nick Ferrari at Breakfast how his wife went for a scan in December 2019, but did not hear the results back for a while.
"If anything's wrong they'll let me know", his wife had said when he raised it with her.
He noticed she would still wear a coat "even when it was sunny", and when they went back to her doctor in search of the results, they found out the medic had moved to Australia.
"We didn't know this", he said adding that a different doctor told them to go to the hospital "straight away".
READ MORE: Keir Starmer to pledge Labour government will bring down suicide rates and NHS waiting times
Caller explains the lead up to his wife's death.mp4
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The caller tearfully explained he had waited for five hours in the carpark when she called him and said she would be kept overnight.
His wife died in July 2020 - around eight months after her first scans - with cancer that had spread to 45 per cent of her bones.
"If you go for a scan, good or bad result, your doctor will tell you your result a week after", he said.
"And that of course is one of the targets that's not being met", Nick added, explaining that the target of cancer patients beginning treatment within two months of an urgent GP referral was last made in 2015.
This call comes as Sir Keir Starmer vowed that a Labour government under him would "get the NHS back on its feet".
