Girl faces five-year wait for outpatient appointment at Offaly hospital

A WOMAN whose daughter is facing a near five-year wait for an appointment at the outpatient department at Tullamore Hospital is this week considering other options.

The woman, who does not wish to be named but identified herself as Toni from Co Kildare, is concerned about her 13-year-old daughter who has been suffering from repeated nosebleeds and dizziness.

The girl was referred to the Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore by her GP and Toni was shocked when she saw the reply letter from the hospital.

“I wish to inform you that the current waiting list is in excess of 249 weeks,” it said. “However, depending on the urgency of your referral an appointment may be issued before this time. If your condition deteriorates you should make an appointment with your GP.”

When she showed the letter to one person they mistakenly thought the wait was a year until she pointed out the 249 referred to weeks, not days.

“Everyone was just so shocked, they just couldn't believe it,” said Toni.

She said her daughter would be nearly 18 by the time the outpatient hospital appointment comes around.

“She was getting the odd nosebleed here and there and the GP said a lot get that, especially teenagers when they go through different hormonal [stages], that it'll be fine,” said Toni.

“But then she started getting dizzy when she got the nosebleed and I brought her back to the GP and she wrote a letter to Tullamore Hospital.

“They came out very quick with their letter but unfortunately [it said] 249 weeks. Honestly I did think it was a typo, I couldn't believe it.

“What are you meant to do when you get an appointment for five years? She's my only little girl so I'm not taking any chances.”

On Tuesday (May 31) she spoke to her GP again and was given letters for two private health practitioners and another for the Eye and Ear Hospital, Adelaide Road, Dublin.

She said she feared she will be unable to afford private treatment.

“If something happens her in the meantime I'll bring her to the emergency department. I know we're not meant to do that but we also can't wait five years.”

Offaly Fianna Fail TD Barry Cowen tabled a Dail question last week asking how the Waiting List Action Plan will reduce in-patient and outpatient waiting times at Tullamore Hospital.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly told Deputy Cowen the action plan allocates €350 million to the HSE and National Treatment Purchase Fund “to provide additional activity to further stabilise and reduce scheduled care waiting lists and times and bring forward much needed longer-term reform”.

Minister Donnelly added: “We estimate that over 1.5 million patients will be added to active waiting lists this year. This Plan details how we intend to ensure that an even higher number, 1.7 million, are treated and removed from waiting lists. Much of our waiting list funding will be directed to public hospitals, where additional elective activity will take place. However, we will also make greater use of the private sector, so we can help patients to get faster access to care.”

He said the action plan does not “specify plans per hospital” but the HSE has been working closely with all hospital groups to finalise care improvement plans which will support funding prioritisation to help reduce waiting list backlogs and identify and build sustainable capacity within the Irish health service.

A spokesperson for the HSE Dublin Midlands Hospital Group said it was recognised that waiting times for scheduled appointments and procedures have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“While significant work continues to positively impact on waiting times and improve pathways to elective care, acute hospitals have been impacted by operational challenges arising from surges in cases related to the Delta and Omicron variants and last year's cyber-attack.”

The HSE said it could not comment on an individual case but “regrets that patients are experiencing prolonged waiting times to be seen for treatment as we prioritise those who are waiting longer and clinically urgent cases”.

The spokesperson added: “Progress has been achieved with regard to outpatient waiting lists at the Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore however challenges do exist in some specialities. The Hospital has made every effort to minimise the impact of the operational challenges such as the pandemic and have included the prioritisation of time-sensitive treatments at all times and the use of a range of measures to increase capacity when feasible, outsourcing, virtual assessments, new clinical pathways and adoption of new technologies.

“The Hospital is implementing the 2022 waiting list action plan, launched in February 2022, and aims to achieve the national targets that no patient is waiting over 18 months by end year. The 2022 waiting list action plan aims to deliver urgent and additional capacity to treat 1.7 mllion people as well as investing longer term reforms to bring sustained reductions in waiting lists. This is the first year of the multi-annual reform programme.”