A top consultant in the West of Ireland has predicted that a multi million pound initiative to reduce hospital waiting lists, expected to be announced this afternoon, will have little or no effect. This afternoon, the Minister for Health and Children is due to announce a new £10 million initiative to reduce the huge numbers waiting for surgical operations and medical procedures in the country's hospitals.
The Department of Health will today announce a reduction in the 36,000 people who are waiting for operations in the country's hospitals and the Minister, Mícheal Martin, will give details of the latest in a series of multi million pound initiatives aimed at reducing the huge numbers of public patients waiting for long periods for treatment.
However a consultant urologist and former president of the Irish Medical Organisation, Hugh Bredin of University Hospital Galway, said that the £10 million being put aside to reduce the lists would have little impact. Mr Bredin said that what is needed is manpower, both consultants and nurses. The health service is short of anaesthetists, there are no locums available, and specialist theatres are closed because of the shortage of nurses.
In the Western Health Board there are 2,500 people waiting for in patient treatment and a further 20,000 waiting for outpatient appointments. He said waiting times for urology in some areas are over six and a half years. The Irish Medical Organisation has called on the Minister to inform patients with low priority conditions how long they will have to wait for their treatment.
