Tina Jordan who is 50 suffers from severe back pain but she has to wait for another year to get an appointment with a specialist.

It is not her fault but she is a victim of an administrative mix-up which health officials are refusing to rectify. The extra delay which she is put through will not appear in the Scottish Executive's waiting list figures. This is because the first referral to see a neurosurgeon was not officially recorded. On the other hand the health officials are announcing that they have reduced the waiting times for initial hospital consultations to six months.

Mrs Jordan said that she is not alone but there are unknown numbers of patients waiting much longer than necessary for an appointment. Her health board NHS Highland confirmed that her case was referred to NHS Greater Glasgow consultants last September. But the city health board denied it. Staff at the Southern General Hospital said that the letter was seen only on April 18 2006. Mrs Jordan was very upset and wrote to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman about the situation and has raised concern there is no system for recording whether referrals have been received by hospitals. NHS Greater Glasgow spokeswoman said that they apologize for the delay and the discomfort the patient will have experienced.