Living hell for ‘forgotten’ South West skin patients

“The tasks are a great cost in my life,” says Elle Jones, 19, reflecting on his severe eccema.

Devon’s employee describes days for “unbearable” pain and chronic itching, while waiting for up to 18 months for NHS treatments.

But she says that the emotional impact is the part of the sausage, making her feel “trapped, desperate” and ever fear the “free” bee of her skin disease.

Miss Jones is one of the thousands of people throughout the country who wait a year or more to see a dermatologist due to the pressure on services based on an increase in urgent skin cancer references and a shortage or specialized doctors.

“I have lost my job, school, university,” says Miss Jones, and adds that “he has spent a lot of time.”

One in ten people in the United Kingdom has eczema and another in five children, according to the National Society of Eczema.

It is a lifetime and incurable.

Miss Jones says that her life became “dark” when she experienced a severe outbreak in university in 2021, describing it as a “never useless tunnel because there is simply no light there.”

“You’re caught in pain and agony,” she says.

“Your skin is always red … bleeding all the time … I couldn’t simply recognize me.

“It’s the soul destroying.”

She says that steroid creams and moisturizing creams prescribed by their header “put me burned and itching,” so it was derived to see a dermatologist.

However, 12 months later he was still waiting, when he moved home to Devon from the University.

Then he waited another 12 months for light therapy and 18 months at the same time for skin allergy patches tests in the summer of 2024.

The results of the patch tests showed multiple skin reactions, so he cut the makeup, hair and nail products, but nothing helped.

The longest waiting for the treatment of dermatology in its area in northern Devon is two years, according to the NHS data published for January, with general waiting in the country longer than the average of England.

Miss Jones is now testing an immunosuppressive drug that she makes her “sleep all weekend.”

Your search for successful treatment continues.

She says she has learned to accept her condition, stay positive and “keep fighting.”

Inflammatory skin disease patients with long face of the face because the departments are flooded with growing skin cancer references, which are the highest of urgent cancer references of the NHS.

These are prioritized, with waiting time objectives established by the Government.

Together with that, a shortage of dermatologists is adding pressure.

The waiting times to receive treatment in the NHS dermatology departments in England are longer than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

NHS data Since the beginning of the year, it shows that 43% of patients waited longer than the objective of NHS or 18 weeks in early 2025.

Around 9,000 people had been waiting for a year or more.

Three of the most common inflammatory skin diseases are eczema” Soriasis and acnethat can cause permanent scars.

Some patients prove treatments through their header for years before referring to a consultant and others enter the hospital with repeated infections.

The Dr. Toby Nelson Consultant Dermatologist, who practices in Cornwall and Devon, describes these patients as “the many forgotten.”

He says: “It cannot be said that skin cancer should not have priority over these other patients, but at this time there seems to be a significant imbalance.

“Some are in a living hell.”

Dr. Nelson says that they resort to private medical care to be seen quickly.

But some of them face greater disappointment, since the NHS can only prescribe more new “transformative medications.”

Like Miss Jones, Ben Varco, 24, from St Austell in Cornwall has been suffering behind closed doors.

“It’s draining both mentally and physical,” he says.

“You feel ashamed to get out.”

Mr. Varco, a warehouse worker, says he was referred to dermatology in the NHS in July 2024 by severe acne, but nine months later he has not heard anything.

“I feel a son of ignored, as if it really were tasks seriously,” he says.

Private attention has cost more than £ 1,000 to date.

Liam Garner, 19, looked for a private treatment after a severe outbreak of Eccema in 2024.

Cornwall’s teaching wizard says: “I understand everything: itching leads to bleeding … moving can hurt and keeps me awake at night.

“I was out of work for two months and I had horrible anxiety.”

Both young people needed their families to pay for treatment.

Skin disease can also affect the mental health of patients with 98% of respondents for All Party Parliamentary Group On Skin’s 2020 Report He said he affected his emotional and psychological well -being.

Andrew Proctor, executive director of the National Society of Eczema, says: “We do not understand why people with eczema and other inflammatory skin conditions are being treated as second -class citizens by the NHS.”

In September 2024, a British dermatologists association (BAD) Work Force Report He warned about a “particularly group” situation for dermatology services, stating: “It is clear that the demand for our services is exceeding the capacity of our workforce to provide attention.”

Meanwhile, a reference point NHS Dermatology Report In 2021, he highlighted a “severe shortage of the workforce based on a long -term restriction in the number of new dermatology training positions.”

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care says that the NHS is “broken and it is unacceptable for patients to have leg pain.”

They say he has delivered two million additional quotes of the planned, and some of them were in dermatology.

The spokesman adds that the department will publish work force plans this summer, to ensure that NHS can provide the delivery of the care that patients need.

A spokesman for the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust says that it is difficult to recruit and that it faces pressure from some of the highest skin cancer rates in the United Kingdom.

“We are working to transform the way we provide attention to reduce our waiting lists,” they add.

Dr. Carolyn Charman, BAD clinical vice president, says that the NHS should be based on the innovative diagnostic schemes of skin cancer, which are key to relieve pressure.

She says there are “real opportunities to counteract challenges” using digital technology, patient images and artificial intelligence.

He adds to patients who suffer while waiting must communicate with their hospital team and seek advice from reliable online sources, such as BAD website.

In the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust, patients such as Mr. Garner and Mr. Varco wait up to 12 months routinely, despite a series of new measures.

A spokesman says: “We have implemented many innovations to respond proactively to the growing demand.”

These include “super clinics” where a specialist supervises multiple Junior doctors and specialized nurses and a community image service administered by medical care assistants.

Some patients are using social networks to help each other.

Katie Mackie, 28, and Maia Gray, 30, are “skin positivity influencers” of London.

Miss Mackie campaigns for charities that change the faces after a “roller coast of mental drainage” with eczema and wants others to know “things improve.”

“Tell people about what you are happening, don’t be a isolated,” she says.

“There is also free therapy and beneficial organizations that can sacrifice.”

Miss Gray, who has had acne for 17 years, adds: “I think it should be noted that a lot of people are mentally fighting with this.

“My message is what your skin condition is, it continues to live life.”