My three-year wait for ‘urgent’ back operation
GREAT-GRANDMOTHER Doreen Russell has been waiting almost three years for a back operation described as ‘urgent’ by medics but her GP can’t even get a response from the hospital.
This comes as a shocking National Treatment Purchase Fund audit of waiting lists in six hospitals on Friday found the figures are incorrect and hospitals are not following official protocols for counting patients.
The audit could mean that a separate NTPF report published this week which stated there are 684,800 people in Ireland waiting for care – up 6,000 since September – may not reflect the true situation.
Doreen, 69, was receiving treatment for ongoing back pain when her problems suddenly deteriorated in March 2015. Following an emergency admission to one hospital, she was referred for specialist care elsewhere. But she’s been waiting over 31 months.
‘I’m still in pain, it goes right down my legs. If I need to go to the post office, I ring my daughter for a lift,’ says Doreen. ‘I went to Lourdes in August, and my daughter had to get a wheelchair for me at the airport. I couldn’t walk to the plane. It felt horrible, it was degrading to rely on my daughter to push me. I couldn’t stand at the mass, I had to get a wheelchair again.’
Last week, the MoS highlighted how mother-of-three Grace Kelly, 37 – who suffers from scoliosisrelated back pain – has been waiting over 18 months for an appointment.
The Mater Hospital told the MoS there’s a four-week wait for appointments following referral from another hospital. Doreen was highly indignant to read this because although she got an appointment within four weeks, she is still waiting for the treatment. She said: ‘They told me I would be waiting four to six weeks. I had a new dressing gown that time, I put it in the bag and the bag is next to my bed since then.’
Meanwhile, Doreen’s appointment record book remains blank and she gets regular letters from the Mater asking her to confirm whether she still needs the operation or not. The most recent came earlier this year. ‘I was disgusted to get it, I nearly threw it in the fire.’
In February last year, Doreen’s GP wrote a letter, seen by the MoS, to the Mater. It said: ‘Spinal stenosis was diagnosed in March 2015 at St Vincent’s University Hospital. She was referred to the Mater hospital within a week for consideration for urgent surgery. Despite two further visits to Accident and Emergency, she is no closer to having this urgent surgery.’ A further document submitted by the GP shows the increasing number of painkillers Doreen has to take.
A Mater spokeswoman said: ‘The Mater hospital does not comment on individual cases.’ She said there are 1,413 patients ‘under the care of the spinal surgeons’ and the longest waiting time is two years and eight months – roughly the length of time Doreen has been waiting.
She also said there are no fulltime spinal surgeons at the clinic and, due to ill-health, the service has been interrupted and is likely to continue this way. The staff includes the equivalent of two and a half full-time consultant roles.
‘My daughter had to get a wheelchair for me’
She added that the start of treatment ‘is variable dependant on a multitude of factors in each case’ and a four-week wait after referral, only applies to scoliosis patients.
Health Minister Simon Harris said this week progress is being made even though he had a copy of the six-hospital audit.