A RETIRED health service manager who has been told he must wait at least 12 months for a life-saving brain procedure has spoken out in a desperate bid to speed his treatment, reports Michaela Robinson-Tate.

Trevor Colloby, who has a cerebral aneurysm at the top of his brain described as a time bomb waiting to go off, has told of his daily fear that it could rupture, either killing him or triggering a severe stroke.

Mr Colloby, 68, who spent 30 years working for the health service, said that after his latest brain scan he refused to "take it sitting down", and fired off a letter to NHS chief executive Sir Nigel Crisp.

MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale Tim Collins has taken up Mr Colloby's case and has asked health ministers to look urgently into waiting times. The MP is angry because of Government claims that 12-month waiting times have been all but eliminated.

Mr Colloby, of Fellside Court, Grange-over-Sands, discovered he had a cerebral aneurysm by chance last March when he was having a brain scan after he had gone deaf in one ear. Medics told him the aneurysm or a ballooning of a blood vessel was in the main artery into his brain.

He was told the best treatment would be "coiling", which involves a piece of wire being fed into the arterial system up into the aneurysm and coiled round inside to strengthen it and prevent it from bursting. He was referred to The Walton Centre in Liverpool for the treatment, which has a 95 per cent success rate.

However, Mr Colloby said he was told that the sole doctor trained to do the procedure could only treat patients whose aneurysms had already ruptured, and that he would be kept under review, even though the possibility of it bursting increased yearly.

Following a further scan earlier this month, Mr Colloby was told that although a second consultant was being trained in the procedure, he would have to wait at least another year.

"I thought I'm not taking things sitting down anymore. I will do anything I can do to get it quicker," said Mr Colloby.

"It really is a time bomb. If it bursts there's a more than 30 per cent chance that it will be fatal but even if I'm not dead I could very well be a vegetable with a severe stroke.

"I'm under tremendous mental and psychological pressure of waiting. The word that comes to mind is that I'm scared.

"I have no complaint about Liverpool they have been very good and honest.

"This technique has been around for ten years but probably they have about eight people in the whole country who can do it."

His wife, Iris, 69, has also been affected and said neither of them had been sleeping well.

The couple are unable to visit their son, Graham, in Italy, because Mr Colloby cannot get travel insurance. He has been told he must keep his blood pressure down and should avoid stress,

becoming angry, and extreme physical work. Mr and Mrs Colloby, who have a daughter, Rachel, and three grandchildren, are worried about the impact on the family.

The former chief administrator and general manager of the Blackpool Health Authority has asked Sir Nigel Crisp if there is anywhere else in the UK or Europe where he could have his treatment more quickly.

MP Tim Collins said: "This is an awful condition which could kill Mr Colloby at any time. Yet despite the seriousness of the illness and the Government's oft-repeated claims that waits of 12 months for surgery are almost a thing of the past, Mr Colloby has been told that a shortage of clinicians means he will have to wait at least another year for treatment."

A Department of Health spokesman said a national target, that no one should wait more than 12 months for all procedures, had been largely met by April this year.

At the time of going to press no one from The Walton Centre was available for comment but managers are to look into the case.

May 30, 2003 09:30