OVER 18,000 ON SUH WAITING LISTS
SOME 2,000 PEOPLE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR OVER 2 YEARS FOR APPOINTMENT
THE number of people on outpatients waiting lists at Sligo University Hospital has been described as unacceptable by Cllr Declan Bree.
In response to questions from Cllr Bree, last week’s meeting of the Regional Health Forum West was provided with a comprehensive break-down of the waiting lists across all the Departments including the period of time patients are on the waiting lists.
Cllr Bree said the figures showed that there were in excess of 18,000 people on outpatients waiting lists at Sligo University Hospital.
Of these, 7,000 had been waiting for appointments for over a year – and there were over 2,000 people waiting for appointments for over two years.
“This is clearly unacceptable,” he said. “We all recognise that the Covid pandemic certainly impacted on the level of service in the hospital. However, it is also
obvious that there is a medical manpower problem with a number of departments with inadequate staffing levels.
“Figures recently released indicate that 20% of all permanent consultant posts in the country are vacant or filled on a temporary basis, the figures also show that there are more than 255,000 people nationwide on waiting lists longer than a year, five times the 2014 number.
“It would appear that many newly-qualified consultants are reluctant to accept positions until the new Sláintecare contract comes into effect. One of the progressive elements of the Sláintecare health reforms, is to end private practice in public hospitals.
“Last year, the government agreed that all consultants appointed in future would be on a new higher paid Sláintecare contract which would permit them to treat public patients only.
“The Sláintecare contractual arrangements were supposed to come into effect in the first part of 2020.But the Covid pandemic intervened and it would appear that little progress has been made in the intervening period.
“Government now needs to deal with this issue as a matter of urgency if waiting lists are to be reduced.” said Cllr Bree.