Hi Karen

Thanks for reaching out and sharing. I’m really sorry to hear about your dad. It is devastating news and it must be very hard on you and your whole family. 

Its a real challenge facing any cancer diagnosis . He’s got stage 2a so that’s heartening to hear when many lung cancer cases are picked up at a late stage .

Hard to see why it’s taken so long for treatment to start or perhaps he’s already on chemo or targeted therapies to shrink the tumour prior to the operation. Perhaps you could accompany your father to the GP to get more information so you can make sense of what’s happening?

Have you managed to speak to him about his feelings ? I can imagine it must be a very difficult time for him

Be assured you’re not alone in this struggle and we’re here for you if you need to talk

Hi,

Thanks for your reply, unfortunately no treatment has started. I went with him to see a surgeon,end of October who put him forward for surgery,xwhich according to his timescale should have taken place by now. He just seems to be referred from one Dr to another and back again. I've been in contact with the hospital PaLS as I feel they are seriously letting him down and they put me in touch with the respiratory department but we're still no further forward. I really don't know who to turn to x

Hello

Well I can see why you're not happy with things and it seems like there is an unexplained delay . As far as waiting time targets are concerned, I'm sure you know about the expectations or what the standard of care for time to first treatment should be : 

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer-in-general/treatment/access-to-treatment/waiting-times-after-diagnosis

If PALS haven't helped ,and they really should at least communicate why the delay is occurring , then there's always NHS England. PALS I believe is the local internal complaints system whereas NHS England have an external complaints system. It may be time to put something in writing showing a clear timeline of GP referral, initial hospital appointment, investigation dates, and initial treatment, mark it as urgent and copy it to the senior hospital management.

PS I would also probably ask for advice from the specialist nurses who are looking after your dad- they may be provide a better perspective than myself on this. Maybe you could ask the nurses here in this site too 

Thank you, I've asked him to give me a list of his appointments, dates, with who, which department etc 

Also, when you say specialist nurse,do you mean a cancer care nurse? As yet he hasn't got one. On the plus side he does now have an appointment to see an anaesthetist so fingers crossed things might get moving