The chairman of HSE West, Padraig Conneely, has stated that the serious delay in orthopaedic appointments for those on waiting list must have caused some people to die from pain.
The Fine Gael councillor, referring to the 40,000 people on the outpatient waiting list for orthopaedics in HSE West hospitals, some of which date back six years, stated: “I’m sure some of those people must have died from pain, waiting for over six years for orthopaedic treatment. This figure is alarming and it is pathetic that there are so many people waiting and that we stand over such figures as a public health service and as public representatives.”
He added that after six years if people finally did get a letter for an appointment, “and there was a cheque in it, they would be disappointed as well.”
Tony Canavan, chief operating officer HSE West, said they were indeed huge figures, “but we had 217,000 attendances at our outpatient services last year - there are also huge numbers that don’t turn up, with 35,000 DNA (did not attends ) last year alone.”
He added that the same attention that was given to dealing with the logjam in inpatient waiting lists is now being directed to outpatient lists.
