13th of February 2014

Local Fianna Fáil TD has slammed the waiting times being inflicted upon people who are in urgent need of hospital appointments and in particular operations.

“ I am currently assisting a number of people, many elderly, who have approached me because they are being left in considerable pain and anguish as the await their appointments. It really is unacceptable to leave a person who needs a knee or hip replaced, barely able to walk and having no quality of life, for upto 2 or 3 years before they are given a consultation.”

“I have raised this issue with Minister Reilly directly through Parliamentary Questions requesting that adequate resources are put in place so the most vulnerable do not suffer.”

“Health Minister James Reilly’s target of having no-one waiting longer than a year for a hospital outpatient appointment by the end of 2013 was a farce”.

While outpatient waiting list figures for the end of 2013 are not yet available, latest statistics show that there were 60,802 people waiting longer than 12 months for an outpatient consultation at the end of November, making it highly unlikely that these patients could have been seen by the end of last year.

Minister Reilly also set a target of having no-one waiting longer than eight months for a hospital procedure by the end of 2013. Latest figures show there were 3,295 waiting for hospital treatment at the end of October.

“In a Dail PQ reply to Fianna Fáil, the HSE said hospitals were currently progressing additional initiatives in order to achieve national wait time targets in EDs, in-patient and outpatient care. Little evidence of this has been seen to date”. Concluded Troy