‘Depressing reading’: Western Health Trust has worst waiting times for hip replacements

The Western Health and Social Care Trust has said it ‘regrets’ that a lack of funding and resources has resulted in it having the worst waiting times in the North for hip replacement operations.

It emerged last week that the current average waiting time for hip replacement operations in the Western Trust area, was 44.5 weeks, as of September 30, 2016.

The waiting period is the longest of all the health trusts in the north, with the Belfast Trust having a waiting time of 29.8 weeks, and with the Southern Trust’s waiting time for hip replacement operations 27.1 weeks.

The South Eastern Trust had the lowest waiting time, of 3.8 weeks.

The figures emerged as the result of question to the Health Minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

A spokesperson for the Western Health and Social Care Trust (Western Trust), said that ‘insufficient resources’, including limited funding, had led to difficulties in meeting the demand for referrals. “The length of time patients wait for outpatient appointments, review appointments and treatments have been affected due to insufficient resources available to meet the demand from referrals in a number of key specialties, including orthopaedics, general surgery, gastroenterology, pain management and rheumatology,” the spokesperson said

“This is due to the constrained funding within the Health and Social Care system, which is not at this time sufficient to allow us to see or treat patients referred to the Trust.”

The spokesperson added that other factors such as sickness and ‘high levels of maternity’ had also impacted its services.

“The number of services have been affected by workforce issues such as sickness, high levels of maternity leave or posts which have been difficult or expensive to fill,” the spokesperson continued.

“The Trust need to live within its budget and is required to control expenditure in such situations.

“This means that some posts will not be covered and this can affect access to some services.”

Foyle SDLP MLA Mark H Durkan, who asked the question in the Assembly, said that the figures made for ‘depressing reading’.

“While these figures make for depressing reading, I fear that they do not reveal the true extent of the waits being endured by people here for hip operations,” he said.

“This 45-week figure is at odds with the times, sometimes in excess of two years, that patients are being told they will need to wait for hip replacements.

“Waiting for a hip isn't like waiting for a new TV or car, people are in pain and hugely incapacitated and it is completely unacceptable that they cannot expect the same standard or speed of care in the Western Trust area than if they lived in another area of the north.”

He added: “I am well aware of the challenges facing the Western Trust in terms of workforce and resources. The Health minister must intervene to empower the Trust to see patients faster and enable them to get on with their lives.”