NI woman travelling abroad for knee replacement

A lady who feels “cheated” by Northern Ireland’s well being system has stated she has no possibility however to journey overseas for remedy.

Monica Fee, from County Londonderry, has waited three years for a knee alternative and has been advised there’s one other four-year anticipate surgical procedure.

Now she plans to journey to Lithuania subsequent month for an operation she hopes will finish the “excruciating ache”.

“I’m terrified about going alone and of getting it finished, however I’ve been backed right into a nook. I don’t assume I’ve any choices left right here,” she stated.

The newest Northern Ireland ready record figures might be revealed afterward Thursday.

Monica, a self-employed hairdresser, was advised three years in the past she had arthritis in each knees and that they would wish changed.

In the years since she and her GP have labored to handle the ache.

“They have finished every part they may presumably do to calm the ache however principally nothing appears to work,” she advised BBC Radio Foyle’s North West Today programme.

“The ache is insufferable, I battle sleeping at night time… I’m not aware of the sizes of knitting needles but it surely’s just like the thickest knitting needle lodged in your kneecap,” Monica stated.

She added: “It shouldn’t be like that 24/7 however quite a lot of the time while you go to maneuver, in case you are sitting down and also you go to rise up otherwise you go to sit down down that ache is like somebody stabbing you with a knitting needle. It is excruciating.”

Doctors advised her when she was first positioned on a ready record it might be a seven-year anticipate an operation within the well being service in Northern Ireland.

In the time since, and regardless of making an attempt to “placed on a courageous face”, Monica stated “life as I do know it has stopped”

“I don’t socialise in the identical manner, I don’t do the issues I used to do,” she stated.

“I was very lively now I delay issues, conform to do issues then change my thoughts. The ache is terrible particularly if I don’t sleep at night time.”

With a potential additional 4 years earlier than surgical procedure, Monica stated she began discover different choices.

She discovered it might price virtually £15,000 to have the surgical procedure finished in an area personal hospital.

That, she stated, is “some huge cash, quite a lot of working hours”.

“I’ve gone for a special possibility, I’ve finished quite a lot of analysis and I’m opting to go overseas for surgical procedure,” she stated.

She pays round £7,000 for the operation she hopes will give her high quality of life again.

But it’s a choice Monica stated she shouldn’t have been compelled to make.

That she has had to decide on the choice of going overseas is “incorrect,” she stated.

She and her husband, Monica stated, aren’t “rich individuals” and can “need to make sacrifices to afford the surgical procedure.

“It is incorrect that you need to pay for a service when you’ve paid a lot into the ( well being) system,” she stated.

Monica added: “I really feel I’ve ticked all of the packing containers, paid into the system, employed numerous individuals… I by no means abused the system, by no means claimed for something. I simply really feel completely let down, let down fully.”