Another health crisis that must be tackled

WHATEVER the specifics in the bowel screening circumstances at Wexford General Hospital, it is nonetheless a shocking state of affairs and, obviously, we need answers.

If, as has been claimed, there were previous complaints made without any follow-up, then it is imperative that the veracity of those claims be established.

However, what this latest medical case also highlights is another very serious failure and one which has the potential for widespread and potentially catastrophic consequences.

Before she passed away from bowel cancer back in 2007, Susie Long’s tragic story gripped the nation when she so courageously went public on Liveline to tell her story. We were horrified at how a seven-month wait for a colonoscopy had effectively handed this young woman a death sentence.

And so a pledge was made by the government of the day that this would never happen again, and that the waiting time for a colonoscopy would never exceed three months.

And now what do we have? Some 4,000 people still on waiting lists for longer than three months.

The health service i s, of course, stretched to breaking point.

Every week a different set of demands are to the fore – how to cut outpatient waiting times, how to eliminate trolleys from hospital wards, how to ensure that our maternity facilities are safe and suitable for our mothers and babies.

Unquestionably the demands are massive. We all acknowledge that.

But what is still patently clear is that the current system is not delivering what is required. Whether a lack of resources is the issue or whether our health structure, as it stands, is simply not fit for purpose – those are questions that remain unanswered. Either way, however, as a snapshot of the overall picture, this latest colonoscopy crisis illustrates something only too well – that giving this country and its citizens a proper, reliable, efficient health service must be the priority of the next government.