This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
Health service ‘failing’ in Northern Ireland
The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) has warned that the health service in Northern Ireland is failing patients waiting for planned treatment.
According to the college, there were 64,074 patients waiting longer than a year for an outpatient appointment and 11,261 were waiting longer than a year for inpatient or daycase treatment as of 30 June 2017.
Waiting times from referral to treatment in Northern Ireland is far longer than anywhere else in the UK. Contrastingly, the number of patients waiting more than a year for treatment in England was 1,544 patients in June 2017.
The RCS also raised concerns over published performance data masking the actual length of waits from referral, with an unacceptable number of patients potentially waiting more than two years for treatment from their initial referral.
Susan Hill, Vice President of the RCS, said: “The waits patients are having to endure for treatment in Northern Ireland are frankly shocking and suggest the health service is failing. The latest performance data shows more than a third of Trauma & Orthopaedics patients and fifth of General Surgery patients are now being forced to wait over a year for treatment, and that’s after they’ve waited to see a specialist, meaning individuals will be waiting significantly longer than the data reflects.
“The political instability of the last nine months offers little prospect of immediate relief for anxious patients. It was announced last week that £40 months of monitoring rounds monies would be released to ease service pressures and deliver some of the proposed reforms. If the health service in Northern Ireland is to avoid catastrophe it is vital the Northern Ireland Assembly returns and this funding, as well as the extra funding agreed by Westminster in the DUP/Conservative confidence and supply agreement is brought forward, through whatever channels are available, coupled with funding to support the implementation of the agreed health reforms. The health service, and more importantly patients, cannot wait any longer.”
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