WLRFM
News

Growth in waiting list times at UHW amidst consultant recruitment 'crisis'

Growth in waiting list times at UHW amidst consultant recruitment 'crisis'

Waiting List Times at UHW

42,359 people are now waiting to see a consultant at University Hospital Waterford (UHW).

The waiting list figures (from August 26th 2021), have been obtained by Sinn Fein and show that one-third of those, 15,684, are waiting over 18 months.

UHW has the second-highest wait times in the country, slightly behind University Hospital Limerick at 43,656.

Sinn Fein health spokesperson David Cullinane says it's shocking:

Advertisement

"It is a staggering amount of people who are waiting to access a consultant in Waterford and the South East alone. There's about 670,000 people across the state including children who are on a waiting list waiting to see a consultant. And almost 900,000 people on some form of waiting list including those waiting on procedures.

"The problems in Waterford have been flagged for a long number of years. I've spoken to the manager of the Hospital in recent times and there is a real capacity problem with space, they simply do not have any to open any more beds and we need more physical buildings and more investment to expand the footprint of the hospital to be able to put in more beds but crucially to put in more surgical theatre capacity and diagnostic equipment and all the other capacity which is needed," he added.

Consultants

The latest figures also show that of the 135 consultant posts approved for UHW, 37 are not filled on a permanent basis; 20 are vacant, which means nobody is doing the work; 12 are filled on a temporary basis; the status of three are unknown and two are filled with agency staff.

Without enough consultants in the system, people are forced to wait longer to access them, which leads to real pressures and bottleknecks at UHW and elsewhere.

Advertisement

The current Vice-President of the Irish Hospital Consultant Association (IHCA) is UHW Consultant Prof Rob Landers, he said there was a "hospital recruitment consultant crisis" and Waterford was feeling the brunt of that.

He said the HSE could not recruit consultants due to the working conditions here, which sees Irish doctors abroad unwilling to come back to work here:

"Consultants just want to work in a system that works, at the moment our system doesn't work, it's highly dysfunctional. It's understaffed and under-resourced and somebody who is trained at a very high level just doesn't want to work in a system like that."

Political Will

The latest figures are released against the backdrop of high profile resignations from the Slaintecare Implementation Advisory Council.

A member of the council Liam Doran said progress with the health reform plan is quickly developing into a crisis, and the group is seeking an urgent meeting with the head of the HSE and Department of Health to discuss visions for the plan.

David Cullinane says the team "was meeting institutional resistance, resistance to change from government and the pace of progress was too slow".

The Waterford Deputy added:

"Without the political will and somebody in charge that actually wants to fix the problems and make healthcare work as opposed to the system we have which clearly doesn't work then I think it's going to remain as it is for some time to come."

Advertisement