LONDON
It was only after repeated calls from her, the doctor and his local member of Parliament that the hospital carried out the operation, nearly a year after it was first requested. Under Government guidelines, he should have started to get treatment in 18 weeks.
"I'm in a lot of pain," Evans said of the test in Cornwall, United Kingdom. "It really limits what I can do on the farm because I cannot lift anything heavy."
In Britain, an increasing number of patients like Evans faced more pain and wait again. It is because the National Health Service was forced to cut 20 billion pounds ($ 31 billion) of budget by 2015, as part of the most radical changes made since the system was established more than 60 years ago.
For hospitals, which means saving money by raising the threshold for who qualifies for the treatment and prolonging the waiting time for non-lifesaving operations.