This article is from page 2 of the 2012-05-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
CLARE people waiting for out patient appointments in Galway are among 40,517 hoping to get a call, with many waiting years for that coveted appointment.
Galway has the longest waiting lists in the country, but the CEO of the Galway/Roscommon Hospitals Group, Bill Maher, said he was more concerned with the duration people were waiting rather than the length of the list.
He also said the 40,000 plus figure was “a worse case scenario” as it had not yet been validated and once it was he expects the figure to fall significantly.
He told members of the Regional Health Forum West that some of the names on the list were duplicated, on other hospital lists or no longer required the service.
“Once validation is complete we would expect a reduction in this number. We know for example that a number of patients are referred routinely to the same or similar services in a number of hospitals,” he said.
Describing the list as “frightening” chairman of the HSE West Forum Cllr Padraig Conneely said he was “getting horrific stories of people waiting years” on the list.
“This is a figure I wouldn’t be happy with either. The real issue for me is not the number of people in the list but how long they are waiting. There are some specialise where people are waiting for years,” the CEO admitted. “I wouldn’t be sure if all patients are still active on the list. To validate the list properly would entail writing out to 40,000 patients and await a response,” he said.
Mr Maher added the HSE had set itself a target to shorten the list significantly within the next 12 months.
“We have set ourselves a target that no one will still be on the list in 12 months. 12 months is still too long for patients to wait for an out-patient appointment but we have to start somewhere,” he said.
“On March 23, 2012, the SDU launched an initiative to deal with the out-patient waiting list. This is similar to the initiative currently underway for in-patient waiting lists. We are currently preparing to take part in this initiative and will be addressing out-patient waiting lists across the hospital group.”
He also denied that the waiting list was as a result of a staffing issue.
The CEO told the HSE forum members that when he had exhausted all of the resources he had, and if he still needed more then he would apply for some.