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People with or suspected of having epilepsy are waiting as long as a year for a test in London, thanks to a shortage of staff made worse after a hospital fired a technician later charged with drugging and sexually assaulting a patient.

Patients who wait to be diagnosed and treated are placed at greater risk of seizures, injuries and even death, the head of a support and education agency says.

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“It’s devastating,” said Michelle Franklin, the executive director of Epilepsy Southwestern Ontario, who has never seen waits so long in her 14 years with the agency. “It’s pretty heartbreaking.”

The toll is emotional too – about 30 per cent of people with epilepsy also have a mental illness, she said, and the long waits undermine their confidence that their conditions will be managed well.

London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) has always been seen in Ontario as a centre for excellence diagnosing and treating the 3,000 to 4,000 people in the London region with epilepsy, Franklin said. But the long waits for outpatients threaten that reputation and undermine a great team of doctors, nurses and other health professionals.