Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
PATIENTS IN NEED of heart care consultancy in the east of the country are waiting up to 22 months for a cardiac appointment.
The waiting list for public cardiology outpatients of Our Lady’s Hospital Navan (OLHN), Co Meath currently stands at 581.
Of those, 32% (184) have been waiting for longer than a year to be seen, with the longest waiting 22 months.
The list refers to patients who have been referred to the hospital by an outside agency, such as their GP, as needing a cardiac examination.
“The GPs and the patients are the ones really suffering here,” a source told TheJournal.ie.
Click here to view a larger image
Of course if you wait long enough for something to go wrong your best bet is to call into casualty, but that’s not much use for someone trying to catch a problem early.
Currently, the director of cardiac services at the hospital is a locum (agency staff). That has been the case since current president of the board at the Irish Heart Foundation (IHF) Kate McGarry left that position at OLHN in 2014.
It’s understood that a process to select a permanent head of cardiac services as her replacement has yet to begin.
OLHN has one of the highest rates of locum practitioners (as opposed to HSE-contracted staff) in the country.
The cardiac waiting lists at Navan hospital are subsumed within the overall lists provided by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (at present the NTPF does not provide waiting lists by specialty for each hospital).
At present there are 792 people who have been waiting for longer than a year for outpatient treatment at the hospital, of which 23% are waiting for cardiac services (there are 66 medical specialty waiting lists detailed on the NTPF site).
‘Absolutely shocking’
Local Sinn Féin TD Peadar Tóibín said of the situation that “healthcare denied for this length of time, in this area, has to be leading to serious negative health outcomes for patients”, adding that “allowing patients to languish for up to two years is absolutely shocking”.
In contrast to the lengthy waiting list for a consultation, the list for non-invasive procedures is relatively short – between three and eight weeks for tests such as blood pressure monitoring, ECHO testing (using sound waves to monitor a heart’s chambers), and stress testing.
All invasive cardiology procedures required for Navan patients, meanwhile, are referred to the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in Dublin.
There is just one physician at OLHN dedicated to providing non-invasive heart consultancy.
In September, TheJournal.ie revealed that the hospital has been operating for at least two years without a single HSE-contracted doctor in its Emergency Department (ED) – a fact which left it particularly vulnerable to a recent wildcat strike on the part of locums across seven Irish hospitals.
When that strike began, four out of five of the locums staffing the ED in Navan failed to show up for work for four days, with the department eventually bolstered by staff drafted from other areas of the hospital.
Regarding the issues being seen with the cardiac waiting list, a spokesperson for the Ireland East Hospital Group (IEHG) told TheJournal.ie that “IEHG is working with Our Lady’s Hospital Navan to significantly reduce this waiting list”.
The spokesperson said that two full-day clinics have been scheduled to clear those patients on the list who have been waiting the longest in a bid to get the wait time to under 12 months.
“It is clear that the HSE are not providing the necessary resources,” said Tóibín.
It is incumbent upon the Minister for Health to step in personally and provide the necessary resources for the people of Meath. This major resource gap leads to further questions regarding the government’s commitment to a fully functioning hospital in Navan, given the radical increase in population in Meath over the last 15 years and the dysfunction of some of our neighbouring hospitals.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
HSE must be waiting for them to die so they can report a reduction in the waiting lists…….
@Kerry Blake: I know of someone who needs a knee replacement now ,they are in there late 40′s, but are being told it’s better to wait till they are in their mid 50′s to have it done. Seeing that the replacement is supposed to
25 years they are convinced that people are made to wait till that age so a rather high percentage will have ‘ check out ‘ before it’s needs doing again.
@Kerry Blake: you might be joking but you’re not far from the truth. Thats the sort of strategy you get when you hire an army of managers rather than doctors and nurses.
@Nucky:
It’s not that they won’t do it again. It’s because they will be too old for the op and the recovery at that age. Waiting till mid 50’s is for sensible medical reasons and not money
@Nick Allen: horseshit I know of 3 people who have had it done in their 90′s , plus it can be done under a local it’s does not require for a patient to be knock out
@Eyepopper: Sadly I’m not joking…..
In the UK, I saw a consultant in 2 days – had an ECG – and was discharged immediately with s prescription (all free).
@Fank Pulman: All free or you didn’t have to pay for it?
@MK76: £/€ 0. Keep up m8. EHIC card is your friend¡
Stop the pretense … Ireland is a failed society … 2-Tier Healthcare, No shelter (basic homes) for families, 2-Tier Motor Tax, …. outsource it to someone who knows how to run a country …
So sad. There just isn’t the consultants to see people. Ireland has the lowest number of doctors per capita in Europe as I’ve said previously. So even more sadly, these stats aren’t at all surprising.
@FacelessJuniorDoctor: Whats just as worrying is reading that in excess of 80 Consultants are not even qualified in that post
81 hospital specialists not fully trained | Campus.ie
campus.ie/surviving-college/81-hospital-specialists-not-fully-trained
@Honeybee: Agreed. I’ve seen that first hand and it’s unfair on patients. It’s crisis management.
@FacelessJuniorDoctor: Crises yes management no……
@FacelessJuniorDoctor: in 2013 we were just below the OECD average of 2.7 per 1,000 of population which is better than the US and Canada for example. I would guess that it’s pure mismanagement for the most part. Patients should not have to spend a week hogging a hospital bed because the multi-million euro xray and MRI labs only work between the hours off 10am – 4pm with a lunch break from 12pm – 2pm, Tues, Thurs and Fri. These theatres should be going 24×7. Break the unions and change the processes. Two goals, quality and throughput.
@Sean @114: I have to say I’m not sure how unionised the staff are who run the scanning machines etc. But yes, that happens a lot here, taking up a bed purely for a scan. A lot of hospitals try and prioritise those people as best they can.
That said , it wouldn’t change the outpatient waiting lists, that’s purely consultants time people need. If we had enough doctors this wouldn’t be happening.
@Sean @114: Who is going to pay to keep these theatres going 24/7? And where are you going to find the staff?
@Philip Kavanagh: trim the admin staff, don’t concede to continual union prompted pay demands and hire in the necessary people to perform the scans. We’re not talking about brain surgeons here, we’re talking about radiographers etc.
@Sean @114: I agree Sean that admin staff should be culled. But what good is a scan if there is no radiologist to interpret it and no doctor or surgeon to act on it? And my question stands. Who will pay for them?
There’s a major expansion almost ready at the nearby Drogheda hospital, as well as a badly needed extension to it’s already overcroweded A&E department it’s rumoured to have medical, surgical, theatres and orthopedic wards.
Given this could the HSE possibly have marked Navan hospital for closure or downgrading, what are the chances of a surprise HIQA inspection and a finding that it’s not up to scratch?
@Jed I. Knight: like in Roscommon…
The people of Ireland deserve better than this farce of a public health system.
The simple fact is that there are over 400 unfilled consultant posts in this country. For all the giving out people do about doctors, until this is addressed, there simply will not be any improvement in waiting times.
@Disgruntled Doctor: I don’t doubt that we could do with more doctors but my mother is waiting over 3 weeks now in hospital for a MRI. The staff don’t work at weekends. Nothing to do with a doctor, just bad management. Meanwhile people dying could do with the bed I presume. Why is a multi million euro, life saving piece of kit sitting idle for most of the week?
@Sean @114: because if inept, gormless management throughout the HSE from the top down.
@Sean @114: “The staff don’t work weekends.” Yes they do. While hospitals do not operate at 100% capacity at weekends, the most urgent clinical cases are assessed and managed. Are you willing to pay significantly more tax to ensure the health service runs at 100% capacity 24/7?
@Philip Kavanagh: why more tax. Remove the under performers. The health budget increases significantly year on year and hire in the radiographers. ALDI doesn’t just open one till because it’s the weekend.
This is what happen with heavily unionised org.
@Simon Peters: Nothing to do with unions Simon claiming that is just a copy out…….
@Kerry Blake: in general unions will protect the non-performers, maintain the lopsided ratio of admin staff to frontline and block any attempts to introduce new efficiency processes and systems. It’s not in unions’ interest to have stability and a properly functioning health system if you think about it.
@Sean @114: Total rubbish. We don’t have the doctors. Not enough doctors are willing to work here. You can pretend all you like that it would help to put your fingers in your ears and rant off topic about unions, but the doctors are going unheard.
If unions are improving working conditions for other hardworking staff, good for them, because Ireland needs nurses and trained, experienced medical staff too, and at least we have them. I don’t know why we don’t have enough decent doctors. I do know that we don’t have them and other countries do.
Yet all the talk before the budget is whether there’s a few euro back in taxes.
@Paul Mc Nulty: The media drives this shlt and we get caught up in it. They decide the narrative. Most of us would prefer a working health service and no homeless issues over a few scraps from FG.
Who cares about the chronic state of our health service or the epidemic of homelessness. We defeated a heavily subsidised water charge and hence are the bastions of social power.
Mé feinism is the way forward d.
@MK76: sober up pal…and see your vet…
@MK76: yes this is the fault of water charge protesters. I’d say you’re using some warped logic there but that would assume you’re using any.
@MK76: That would be the water service we pay for through motor tax and VAT?
I’ve been waiting 2 years in limerick for an appointments it’s not just Meath!
Only the poor are on waiting
pay them what they deserve,the doctors and nurses
@ian kennedy: Yes, but I don’t think it’s the pay that’s putting them off, they talk of working conditions too, and more often.
It’s called murder by numbers.
Nothing will change while the obnoxious Simon Harris blunders his way through the HSE.
Nothing will change while the obnoxious
have your say