Portsmouth dad and gym owner fears his arm might not properly heal as a victim of NHS backlog

Gym owner and Ministry of Defence worker Dan Fallon, from North End, is concerned a break in his humerus will not heal as well as it should – affecting both his home and work life – and questioned why it took so long for the NHS to act.

Although he first broke his upper arm at the end of December, a series of delays – as well as Covid – meant it was not operated on until mid-January.

As a result there is a now large gap in between two sections of the bone, and the metal plate along one side of the bone is not straight. Currently he can’t use his right hand for writing or eating and has overall limited mobility, while the circulation in his hand has been affected.

The 38-year-old suffered the break while arm wrestling his friend in a pub in Hull during a trip to see family.

The former Royal Navy physical training instructor said: ‘It took five hours for ambulance just to arrive and then I had to wait another five hours in A&E – without painkillers.

‘I’ve broken bones before but the pain was unlike any of the other times.’

Once he was seen he had an X-ray and a surgeon told him it needed to be operated on in the next couple of days.

Dan was heading back home to Portsmouth the next day with his family so asked if he could have it there. The surgeon assured him if he showed his X-rays to the A&E department at Queen Alexandra Hospital he would be seen as an urgent case.

On December 31 Dan went to QA and waited about an hour and a half to be seen. Once a doctor saw the scans they agreed he needed surgery, which was organised for the Monday (January 3). Dan did a Covid swab in preparation, which came back negative.

He said: ‘I turned up on Monday to day surgery at 7am as I had been told. But they didn’t seem to be expecting me.

‘I was told they had been too busy over the weekend and I’d have to come back tomorrow.’

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But this led to further delays as he took a new Covid swab on the ward that day in preparation and it came back positive.

He tested negative six days later, and was told to come in on January 12.

‘Bearing in mind it was already two weeks since the accident, I then had a call to say it was being postponed until the 14th,’ he said.

‘Luckily it actually went ahead that time.

‘But when I saw the surgeon afterwards and the X-rays I noticed the large gap between the fragments of bone. I knew that wasn’t right.

‘I asked the surgeon and she said it wouldn’t have been like that if she had operated while it was “still fresh”.’

Dan has been signed off from work for eight weeks and was told he would be assigned a physiotherapist.

A month later and he decided to find a physio privately.

He said: ‘I’m lucky because I work in exercise and rehabilitation. I know that it’s better to do certain exercises than sit there doing nothing.

‘But other people might be sat at home thinking they can’t move their arm at all because they need to wait to be assigned a physiotherapist.’

He added: ‘It’s really frustrating and I’m really disappointed. I don’t want to bash the NHS. I have lots of friends and family who work for the NHS and do a great job but the communication between departments just doesn’t seem to be there or working.

‘I can’t hold my little girl because of my arm. She’s eight months old and if she were to wriggle I could drop her. I’m right-handed but can’t use my right arm at the moment to write or feed myself.

‘Lots of things must be missed at the moment. I feel really sorry for people waiting for cancer treatment or diagnosis.’

It comes as health secretary Savid Javid revealed the NHS waiting list in England will not start to fall for at least another two years and could even double in size, according to the government’s new recovery plan.

Around six million people in England are currently on the NHS waiting list for treatment, including hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery and test, as figures hit record numbers.

And in Portsmouth more than 45,000 people were waiting for treatments at the end of November last year.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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