Two year wait to get tonsils out for Sligo hospital patients
PATIENTS in Sligo are having to wait more than two years for a tonsillectomy because the ENT Service in Sligo is “currently grossly overloaded”, a hospital consultant has warned.
In a letter to Sligo County Council seen by The Sligo Champion, Consultant ENT Surgeon Mr Marcus Choo gave the explanation after Councillor Michael Clarke called for answers as to why patients are waiting so long here.
There are three full- time ENT consultant positions in Sligo who last year saw 11,500 outpatients between Sligo and Letterkenny hospitals.
There are 3,800 people waiting for their first appointment between both hospitals and over 1,000 patients waiting for in- patient surgery.
Patients who suffer from recurrent tonsillitis do not fall into this urgent category, even though naturally recurrent tonsillitis “does have a significant impact on patients’ quality of life and days lost from work or school,” said Mr Choo.
“Unfortunately given our current resources, this system is grossly overloaded. Each full time Consultant runs the equivalent of four outpatient clinics per week. This is significantly more than any other surgical speciality in the country,” he said.
“We as ENT Consultants are thoroughly unsatisfied with the current position,” he said.
He added that he and his colleagues have made “multiple attempts to increase resources which are usually met with the standard HSE response that there is not enough money in the budget.”
Many patients waiting to have their tonsils removed are ultimately referred to the private sector through the National Treatment Purchase Fund ( NTPF).
Patients are currently waiting at least 15 months on the public waiting list before they are transferred onto the private list. “We are constantly struggling to see patients urgently and in a timely manner and to subsequently operate on them within a reasonable time frame but given the current resources this is impossible,” said Mr Choo.
He and his colleagues are now in the process of putting a business case forward for a fourth full time ENT Consultant in Sligo and Letterkenny.