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Excess Waiters Doubled In 5 Years

Monday 16 January 2006

The number of people waiting for more than 3 months to see a hospital consultant has doubled from 60,000 individuals to 120,000 individuals in the last 5 years.

The number of people waiting for more than 3 months to see a hospital consultant has doubled from 60,000 individuals to 120,000 individuals in the last 5 years.

Andrew Dougal, Chief Executive of the NI Chest Heart & Stroke said that the Charity had been warning for 3 years that there was an inexorable rise in waiting times for first appointments. Unfortunately these siren warnings fell on deaf ears.

It is the hope of NI Chest Heart & Stroke that the Minister will announce radical proposals to tackle this. It is also hoped that the Health Service will have the resources and efficiency to pull back the situation. There is a huge mountain to climb, even to get back to where we were 5 years ago.

The situation is compounded by the fact that there is shortage of consultant cardiologists. Currently at least 5 posts are vacant. The workload for cardiologists has greatly increased with a massive increase in the number of balloon tests as well as more stents being implanted in coronary arteries. These are welcome developments.

NICHS also welcomes the fact that some hospitals have set up rapid access chest pain clinics which means that people can be readily assessed if there is a danger of a heart attack.

However, said Andrew Dougal, “Even if there is no physiological damage to the individual, he or she may suffer anxiety and psychological damage, not only for themselves, but also for members of their family.

The public must play its part in this situation by ensuring that whenever an appointment is given, the person does attend. In the event of it being impossible to attend, the patient should give as much notice as possible to the hospital. This will ensure that the slot will not be wasted in the outpatients’ clinic and may be offered to another individual.

1 in 9 individuals in Northern Ireland is waiting for a hospital appointment. 187,000 people, and of these 120,000, are waiting more than 3 months. This means that the Health Service is meeting its target in less than 40% of cases.”

Ends

Note to Editors:

More than 4,300 people are waiting for an appointment to see an orthopaedic surgeon. While hip and knee replacements are not life-threatening illnesses, those who have such problems endure a huge amount of suffering. The quality of lives of these individuals is very poor over a long period. Only 1 in 5 orthopaedic patients is seen within the 3-months target period. Urgent action needs to be undertaken and routes found to turn around the situation. Only a quarter of neurology patients are seen within the 3-months target time.

NI Chest Heart & Stroke believes that more resources must be granted and that those resources must be linked to performance criteria. Members of the public must see a return from the investment which has been made in the Health Service in recent years.

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