Madam,

I am 70 years old, a former British police officer and now an OAP RAF aircrew veteran on a war pension. I lost my good health fighting for a decent honest country and yet I am being denied treatment by an organisation which seems to have no sense of responsibility.

I have written to the Welsh Secretary for Health and Social Security, Vaughan Gething, because it seems to me that if this is happening under his watch then he must accept responsibility, acknowledge that he is not in control of the NHS in Wales and should resign.

Many years ago I attended the North Road Eye Clinic in Aberystwyth for a small operation to remove a piece of metal from my eye. During this operation the consultant diagnosed that I had Glaucoma in my right eye and he stated that I needed to have six-monthly eye examinations to monitor this degenerative disease. For years I had just that and field tests and eye screening were followed by detailed examination by the consultant to examine the eye and optic nerve. In June 2016 I had just such an examination and, again, the consultant stated that I needed a further examination in six months’ time.

About one year after that I had not received any appointment and I called the eye clinic. The young man answering told me there was a nine-month backlog but that I could expect an appointment in October 2017. When no appointment was forthcoming I contacted the Hywel Dda Patient Support Service. The young lady who answered my call stated they were short of a consultant and therefore only emergency patients were being seen.

At this point I contacted my MP, Ben Lake, and since then there has been considerable communication between myself and him and his case worker. His response and actions, as well as those of his staff, have been exemplary.

This morning I received a call from Patient Support Services to say there was an appointment for me on 16th June.

She went on to explain that the appointment on the 16th (a Saturday) was only for a field test and I would then be given a follow-up appointment and, if I had not received one in six months, then I should contact them again. A field test is a five-minute test carried out by a nurse and has no value unless followed by a consultant examination. It became obvious that I had not been given an appointment for a consultant eye examination, and this appointment for a field test was their attempt to put off the long-overdue eye examination.

What I was told I needed was a consultant eye examination. To now ask me to travel to Aberystwyth for a five-minute test and then have to wait a further six months, or is that two years, for the eye appointment is not on.

I am minded to reject this appointment as it is meaningless.

No doubt North Road Eye Clinic has problems, but this is a disgraceful situation. It is not new, it is not being acknowledged, it is not being addressed.

Mr Gething, the captain of the ship, is either unaware of the facts or unwilling to do anything about it.

Yours etc,

R N Phillips, Address supplied.

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