Patients say they were removed without warning, left in pain, or forgotten entirely – now they want answers

A WAVE of testimony from Pembrokeshire patients has revealed the true scale of the NHS waiting list crisis, with more than 100 people coming forward in just a few days to share stories of lost letters, cancelled appointments, and being removed from hospital care without ever being told.

Following a public appeal by The Pembrokeshire Herald, readers responded in force — describing what they call a “shambolic” system, in which patients are being quietly dropped from waiting lists, given incorrect or late information, and forced to chase departments that never answer the phone.

Letters never arrived — then the appointment was gone

One mother told the Herald she only discovered her young son had been removed from a waiting list for surgery after chasing a non-existent appointment.

“We never received the original letter. Then we turned up for a new date, only to be told it had been cancelled — but no one told us,” she said. “Later, they told me he’d been removed from the list for missing appointments we never knew about.”

In another case, a mother of a child with a rare genetic condition said her daughter was due annual dermatology reviews — but after a cancellation in 2023, she heard nothing for months. In February this year, she received a letter stating her daughter had missed an appointment and was being removed. She said: “We never got the original appointment, and when we finally got one for April, it was cancelled too. We’ve heard nothing since.”

Voicemail chaos and ‘no way to contact anyone’

A recurring theme in the responses was departments not answering their phones, and voicemail systems that lead nowhere.

One woman, removed from a physio course after a single missed session, said: “I rang three times that day, left a full message explaining I was unwell, but no one ever rang me back. Then a letter came saying I’d been removed from the course. I tried ringing again — just voicemail. After the second time, I gave up.”

In another case, a patient who had been waiting for diabetic retinopathy screening since before Covid told us: “I’ve phoned multiple times over three years. Every time they say they’ll send an appointment. I’ve given up.”

One former patient said he was moved to the back of the list after a missed telephone consultation — even though the doctor rang an hour early, and never called again.

GP failures and missed referrals

Many readers raised concerns about general practice as well as hospitals, claiming referrals were never sent or followed up.

One woman wrote: “If my old GP had referred me straight away, I wouldn’t be in the state I am now. As soon as I changed surgeries, I was seen — but by then the damage was done. My life’s been ruined.”

Another reader commented that her father never got the treatment he needed, and believes that delays in referrals contributed to his death.

Transport cancellations and “cheating the system”

Several readers also raised concerns about non-emergency ambulance transport being cancelled at short notice, leaving vulnerable patients unable to attend appointments.

One woman said: “My dad has had his transport cancelled the night before appointments. We had no backup, and he missed it.”

Another reader wrote: “It’s all about stats. They remove people from the list, say they’ve missed appointments, and it makes the waiting time numbers look better. It’s cheating, plain and simple.”

Health board responds — but no figures yet

Hywel Dda University Health Board has responded to the Herald’s request for comment, stating it follows strict national protocols and that any patient removed in error will be reinstated at their original place on the list.

In a statement, Director of Operational Planning and Performance Keith Jones said: “We make every effort to send appointment letters in a timely manner and it is part of our procedure to phone a patient should we need to see them at short notice or to cancel appointments.

We have received feedback from some patients of incidences where appointment letters have not been received in a timely manner. We are reviewing the factors which may lead to late receipt of appointment letters and will implement any necessary improvements.”

The health board also promotes a digital system, Hywel Dda Post, for accessing appointment details online. However, patients have reported issues with this too — particularly those without smartphones or digital literacy.

The board was unable to provide any figures on how many patients have been removed from waiting lists over the last five years and advised the Herald to submit a Freedom of Information request, which has now been done.

Public anger growing

With more than 100 people coming forward in less than 48 hours, public anger is mounting. Many say they are being pushed toward private treatment, or simply left to suffer for years.

“I’ve been in chronic pain for over a decade waiting for three surgeries,” one woman wrote. “I’ve lost 11 years of my life.”

Another added: “It’s not just the health board. Welsh Labour has failed us for years. They have money for road signs and tree projects abroad — but not for our surgeries.”

What’s next?

The Herald will continue to investigate this issue and publish further updates once the FOI response is received.

We are compiling a formal submission to both the Health Board and the Welsh Government, including anonymised patient testimonies, to call for a public explanation of how waiting lists are managed — and how many patients have been quietly removed.

If you or a family member has experienced anything similar — missed letters, unexplained removals, transport cancellations, or GP referral failures — you can contact us in confidence at:

📧 [email protected]

A CALL to allow a Pembrokeshire farm diversification which packages and distributes specialist medical equipment across Europe to relocate to an agricultural building has been turned down by county planners.

In an application to Pembrokeshire County Council, Mr Van Der Spoel of Castle Villa Farm, Hayscastle, through agent Harries Planning Design Management, sought permission for the relocation and expansion of an existing farm diversification business into an existing agricultural building.

A supporting statement said the applicant, together with his wife and adult daughter ran the farm diversification at their 135-acre sheep farm.

It added: “The business run from this site is FRIO ASTRID EURO Ltd, which has a franchise agreement with FRIO UK. This business has been run from Castle Villa since its incorporation in 1998. The business was initially run from the stable building on the farmyard at Castle Villa.

“The business set-up involves receiving stock from FRIO UK in Wolfscastle, packaging orders and distributing the stock to seven Western Europe countries. There are three employees, Mr Van der Speol, his wife and adult daughter who all live at Castle Villa.”

Wolfscastle-based FRIO produces the world’s first patented insulin cooling wallet which keeps insulin and other temperature-sensitive medicines cool and safe.

The supporting statement said the Castle Villa Farm business has now outgrown the site and scope for increasing the building is unviable, and all other buildings at the farm used for agricultural purposes.

It added: “In terms of a functional need for the business to be located at this site, the applicant still farms over 135 acres surrounding the site and 300 sheep. He could be needed at any given moment to tend to these sheep, especially during lambing season. Therefore, having the site just a seven-minute walk away is vital in ensuring the agricultural use is not lost at Castle Villa.

“Additionally, the products distributed from the site are medical products and therefore, efficiency of getting these products away to purchasers is vital. Losing hours each week commuting would drastically reduce the efficiency of the business and could result in a downturn of business.”

An officer report recommending refusal said a previous retrospective application for a steel-framed storage and distribution building was refused, with a later appeal dismissed, a later application conditionally allowing the building for an agricultural use.

It also said an appeal had been lodged with Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW) in early 2024 after an enforcement notice was served, adding an inspector later confirming the only ground upheld was the period for compliance with the notice was too short.

The scheme was refused by county planners on the grounds the development “does not derive its inputs from the land, it is not therefore an enterprise for which a countryside location is essential”.

It added: “In addition, robust evidence has not been provided to demonstrate that the type of activity being undertaken could not be accommodated, or would not be viable, within a nearby settlement or an allocated employment site.

“The development also fails to demonstrate that the scheme operates as a farm diversification. Therefore, it has not been demonstrated that the development is in an appropriate location.”

THE SENEDD narrowly rejected calls to declare a health emergency as the Conservatives warned NHS Wales is in the worst state it has ever been.

James Evans pointed out that nearly one in five people are waiting for treatment, with more than 250,000 people waiting more than nine months for care.

Leading a Tory debate on July 2, the shadow health secretary told the Senedd more than 100,000 people in Wales wait more than 12 hours in A&E each month.

Mr Evans said: “While they wait, ambulances queue outside, unable to offload patients, tying up paramedics who should be on the road saving lives. The ambulance service has not hit its target for eight-minute response times for life-threatening calls for four years straight.”

He warned GP services are overwhelmed, NHS dentistry is collapsing and mental health services are also in crisis. “If that’s not an emergency, I do not know what is,” he said.

Mabon ap Gwynfor, Plaid Cymru’s shadow health secretary, supported the Tory motion, pointing out that his party made calls to declare a health emergency in February 2024.

He said since then: “Waiting lists have broken records another nine times, and every one of the seven regional health boards has stayed in special measures of one kind or another.”

Describing Labour’s record over the past 26 years as unacceptable, Mr ap Gwynfor accused ministers of changing targets on a whim and refusing to admit failure.

The Conservatives’ Natasha Asghar criticised “shameful” treatment times in Wales. She said: “If anything, things continue to go from bad to worse under Labour’s watch and, perhaps more worryingly, failure… to turn things around seems to end in promotion.

“Mark Drakeford, Vaughan Gething and Eluned Morgan all presided over the health brief, failed to deliver successful results and ended up being First Minister.”

Her colleague Gareth Davies, who worked in the north Wales NHS for a decade, told the Senedd: “We just cannot go on like this. The Welsh Government has declared a nature and climate emergency; we now need to declare a health emergency in Wales.

“Unlike the trendy nature and climate emergencies championed by the establishment, this crisis lacks glamour but demands urgent action and means more preventable deaths, prolonged suffering and eroded trust in the NHS….

“Declaring a health emergency is an honest admission that the system is failing and that extraordinary measures are needed.”

Labour’s Carolyn Thomas told the Senedd the NHS has often been ranked among the best health care systems in the developed world. “We must value it,” she said.

Pointing to the impact of the pandemic on waiting lists and Tory austerity, which “tore at the fabric of society”, the former councillor said: “I refuse to talk down our wonderful NHS.”

Jeremy Miles accused the opposition of only seeing the worst in the health service and indulging in their “favourite sport” of political football, “kicking the NHS from pillar to post”.

Hitting back at his opposite number, the health secretary said: “I heard the Conservative health spokesman say… ‘if that’s not an emergency, I don’t know what is’.

“Let me tell him what a health emergency is – it’s Covid, it’s mpox, it’s war, it’s terrorism.

“And the public will look at this debate and see that in it – shamefully, on a matter of such importance – it’s driven by a slogan and not by substance.”

Senedd Members voted 26-24 against the Tory motion before agreeing the Welsh Government’s amended version by the same margin.