Northern Ireland waiting lists

Is anyone else from NI having to wait ridicuous times post biopsy.  My family are currently going through this with my father who has been passing blood and clots in his urine for a full year now.  He has had tests concentrating on his prostate but in Feb this year tests starting looking at the full renal area and he was told that there were abnormalities in the prostate and bladder leading to the ureter.  He had biopsies under a general 6 weeks ago and we still we have had no contact from anyone.  When he came out of recovery after the biopsies he was told that his right kidney was diseased and it was aggresive which would require the kidney to be removed.  He was also told that there was cancer in his prostate but the immediate risk was his kidney.  During this they also put a stent in the ureter.  Doctors at the hospital refused to speak to us whilst dad was in recovery and he was discharged from hospital 3 days later without any discharge info and was told upon leaving that he would be back in 2-3 weeks for kidney removal surgery.  We have a conference call with his urologist on 27th which will be 7 weeks post biopsy.  Currently my father thinks that maybe he heard incorrectly and things aren't as bad as he first thought because it has taken so long and also that they are phoning instead of wanting to see him, he is scared to look at the post or answer the phone to an unknown number.  I am not frutrated anymore but angry now that this has went on for so long with next to no contact from doctors and blantant refusal to communicate with us.  Please tell me if you are also in this boat.

  • Hi Dmcn1,

    Welcome to Cancer Chat. I'm sorry to hear of the situation with your father and the time it's taking to get some answers. I can understand this must be incredibly frustrating. Waiting times in general are tending to be longer than usual at the moment, although I'm not sure specifically about in NI. If anyone else on the forum has similar experience with this then hopefully they'll be along soon.

    Try to make the most of the appointment on the 27th, and I hope you're able to find out everything you need to.

    Wishing you all the best,

    Ben
    Cancer Chat Moderator