"Trying to access Pembro treatment"

I have recently been diagnosed with TNBC. As you can imagine this was a devasting diagnosis, I'm only 50, I have a husband, two young children and I support my elderly parents.

Whilst reading up on my diagnosis I was thrilled when I came across the article about Pembro being available in Scotland and it gave me hope that the risk of recurrence is reduced however my optimism was short lived.

I attended my first chemo session last week. My consultant had asked for funding for me to receive pembro and despite him emphasising the importance of a response that day, the team who approve treatments had not responded to his emails and I believe he is still awaiting a response. This has caused further issues with my treatment because it has now caused a delay in me starting dense dose EC whilst my oncologist awaits a decision. In a nutshell my treatment plan has been compromised due bureaucracy and politics.

On discussion with another patient (on paper they have the same diagnosis and fitness etc) they were told that they had been refused pembro that day. The reason being lack of resources, lack of funding. This poor patient is crushed. When I spoke to my consultant again we agreed that I will most likely be declined too. My heart sank.

So in summary pembro is not freely available to patients in Scotland due to a lack of resources and patients are being made weeks/months to be told this which further compromises their treatment options.

A poor state of play and quite honestly not something I should have to be worrying about right now. It is having an impact on my psychological wellbeing since I know my treatment plan is being impacted by the lack of care or response from the team who make these decisions.

I am an NHS worker I have went above and beyond in my job and the majority of time I don't get my time back or get paid for it. The first time I need the NHS I have been let down. Please help me and other women get the treatment we deserve