Ryan expresses shock at number of people on ENT waiting list.
Sinn Féin TD for the South Kildare Constituency, Patricia Ryan, has expressed her shock at the amount of people awaiting an appointment for an ENT Appointment at Tullamore Hospital.
Patricia said;
“I was contacted recently by a man who is on the list for at least 3 years. He had received a letter asking him to confirm if he still needed to be on the list. When he was first accepted on to the waiting list, the letter informed him that the wait time was 2 years. I find it bizarre that the HSE does not know how long a new entrant can expect to be on the list, when they have informed people in writing that the expected wait is 2 years.”
“I submitted a parliamentary question and the answer I received is absolutely unacceptable. There are over 150 people waiting over 4 years, with 39 of these waiting for over 5 years. There are over a thousand people waiting for between 3 and 4 years. Many of these are children who are suffering recurring illness while they wait. This has resulted in many missed days at school. This is not acceptable. Apart from the suffering, working families are taking time off work and shelling out €50 to €60 for multiple visits to doctors.”
“There are over 2,000 people waiting less than a year, and over 2,500 waiting for between one and two years. There are over 7,500 people in total on the list. We need a plan to deal with this, a real plan with measures put in place to address the root cause of the problem. We need to find out exactly what is causing these long delays and find ways to increase capacity. If that means taking on more staff, this needs to be done immediately. I will be corresponding with the Minister for Health to ensure urgent action is taken to address this.