Home » Mum’s last ditch plea to Health Minister
News

Mum’s last ditch plea to Health Minister

Kelly Thomas and Simon Hart MP: Letter to First Minister Carwyn Jones.
Kelly Thomas and Simon Hart MP: Letter to First Minister Carwyn Jones.
Kelly Thomas and Simon Hart MP: Letter to First Minister Carwyn Jones.

A DESPERATE mum who has been waiting 60 weeks for a “routine” operation has written a last ditch plea for help to Wales’ First Minister. Kelly Thomas from St Florence has been waiting for 15 months for the urgent bowel operation. Every day is agony as she suffers from sickness, severe tummy aches, migraines and back pain. The 36-year-old teaching assistant cannot work and is now facing mounting bills as she tries to look after her two children.

Her MP Simon Hart has been battling to help her get the operation she so desperately needs. “Kelly has been passed from pillar to post by Hywel Dda Health Board,” he said. “They agree that the operation is urgent but they have classified it as “routine” so that means they don’t have to pay for her to have it in England.

“However it isn’t “routine” – the local hospitals down here have said that they are unable to carry it out as they don’t have the facilities to care for her properly afterwards. “But Abertawe Bro Morgannwg Health Board in Swansea, where she can have the operation, says their list is too long and they cannot give her a date “for the foreseeable future” and that is despite already waiting more than a year!

“Kelly has been caught between two local health boards – one that is unwilling to carry out this operation and one that is unable to carry it out – and the effect it is having on her health is horrendous. “If she lived in England then she would have had the operation within weeks, it is an absolute disgrace that she has been let down like this by the Labour-led Welsh Assembly Government.”

Author