Waiting list crisis leads to rise in rarer conditions
PEOPLE are suffering from potentially deadly medical conditions that have not been seen by surgeons for years due to the hospital waiting list crisis, it has been warned.
Stormont’s health committee has been told surgeons are dealing with the cases as waiting times continue to spiral out of control.
It comes as a top health officials warned it will take a decade to address the situation.
Lisa Mcwilliams, interim director of performance management and service improvement at the Health and Social Care Board, appeared in front of MLAS yesterday.
Describing the waits being endured by patients prior to the pandemic as “unacceptable”, she said the situation had deteriorated further over the past 12 months.
Pam Cameron MLA revealed disturbing details of an informal meeting with the Royal College of Surgeons earlier this week.
She said: “One of their key messages to us was patients were presenting with conditions that they had not seen for years, like perforated colonic cancers and ruptured hearts.
“They also referred to waiting lists as devastating and spoke about nursing staff being their most important resource.”
A perforation of the bowel is a rare complication for patients with colorectal cancer and usually requires emergency surgery.
It is associated with a poorer outcome for the patient.
A heart rupture is an extremely serious but relatively uncommon complication of a heart attack where the muscles, walls or valves split. Open heart surgery is usually required.
According to the NHS, it is estimated that one in two people dies within five days of a rupture.
Ms Mcwilliams warned significant ongoing investment will be required to tackle waiting lists.
She said it was previously believed it would take between five and 10 years to resolve the crisis, but officials are now of the opinion it will take a decade.
MLAS were also told steps must be taken to address capacity and workforce issues to deal with ongoing new referrals.
Alastair Campbell, director of Hospital Services Reform at the Department of Health, said: “It will take time to do this properly because it’s going to take investment over a long period.
“What I would say about the investment is that we have been in a similar position, not quite as bad, in around 2005, and we did get the waiting lists down over about four years until they were at acceptable levels.
“But we did focus a great deal on additionality and non-recurrent funding, because that was the funding we had available, and if we do the same again we will end up in the same position again — that we will get the waiting lists down to an acceptable level and then they will continue to grow again.”