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THE NUMBER OF children on long-term waiting lists for heart consultations at Dublin’s only inner city children’s hospital has sprouted alarmingly in the last two years.
Since December 2015, the number of people on the Children’s University Hospital Temple Street awaiting a first cardiology appointment has increased from 675 to 1,103 at end November 2017, an increase of 63%, according to the waiting list figures maintained by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF).
However, during the same time period, the percentage number of children on long-term waiting lists at Temple Street has increased to a far greater extent.
80 children had been waiting for greater than 12 months for a first cardiac consultation at the hospital in January 2016 – that figure had jumped a massive 634% to 587 by the end of November last year.
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Perhaps even more significantly, the number of children waiting for a consultation for more than 18 months has exploded over the same period – from just two children in January 2016 to 441 at end November (its highest level in any monthly breakdown that the NTPF has provided since March 2015) – an increase of a staggering 21,950%.
When queried as to the size of the lists by TheJournal.ie, a spokesperson for Temple Street said that “all referrals (for cardiac consultation) are triaged by the consultant paediatric cardiologist with potentially urgent referrals given appointments first”.
One clinic per week
At present, the hospital says it “has access to only one consultant paediatric cardiologist”, with that consultant “only commissioned to one clinic per week at Temple Street”, suggesting the problem is very much one of resources.
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At that clinic, the consultant gives precedence to “all newly referred patients and all inpatients that require cardiac input”.
“Any parent with a child who has been ill will know the stress that comes from watching their child suffer – that is heightened to terror when the child has a condition that can be threatening to their long-term health or their lives,” said Sinn Féin TD Peadar Tóibín, who first raised the issue of the hospital’s cardiac lists several months ago.
Cardiovascular conditions are serious and often urgent conditions. There is no doubt that delayed diagnosis and treatment of the illnesses affecting these children is leading to significantly poorer outcomes.
The news comes at the end of a trying week for the HSE and Minister for Health Simon Harris, with the numbers of people on trolleys in Ireland’s emergency departments smashing all previous records.
On Wednesday, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation’s (INMO) trolley count showed a new record high – the 2nd time in a matter of days – of 677 patients waiting on trolleys in public hospitals.
In light of the huge numbers waiting multiple hours in those departments (perhaps attributable to an extent to the onset of ‘flu season’), the Irish Medical Organisation stated last week that “this chaos is the reality of our health services today”.
Regarding Temple Street’s cardiac lists, the trends seen are broadly in line both for the overall lists and the greater-than-18 months list, suggesting that the long-term backlog for cardiac care at the hospital is simply not being dealt with, and hasn’t been for nearly two years.
‘Long term solutions’
Currently, the 587 children who have been waiting for greater than 12 months for a cardiac appointment account for more than half (53.2%) of the overall 1,103 people awaiting appointments at the hospital. By contrast, that figure was just 11.3% in January 2016 – 80 of 705 patients.
The hospital, meanwhile, says that plans are in train to deal with the crisis.
“Temple Street is in negotiations with the HSE and Phoenix Children’s Health (the new name for the Children’s Hospital Group) with regard to long-term solutions to reduce the cardiology outpatient waiting list and has submitted a number of business cases through the annual estimates process,” the spokesperson said.
“That the overall numbers waiting has increased to such an extent in a time of so-called recovery is a clear example of this government’s distorted priorities,” said Tóibín.
I have looked at the rate of increase in numbers waiting over 18 months and I still find them hard to believe. This is not happening by accident. Behind each one of these figures is a family. Simon Harris as a moral responsibility to investment the necessary resource to resolve this crisis now.
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What can be said that hasn’t been said before about the debacle the public health service is in. It’s criminal.
But i suppose we will have someone from Leo’s 5 million fraperoom along to tell us it’s the kids fault for being sick, that waiting lists are normal, that they could be treated if they didn’t expect to get treatment for free. That it’s the unions causing the problems.
There are no excuses, what’s going on in the health service, as in the homeless debacle, is a direct result of government policy. Nothing else.
@Dave Doyle: Pay more to get more but it has to be spent the correct way and not wasted.
@Dave Doyle: Government don’t give a s*** about the most vulnerable in life . Treated like dirt , children & homeless, . But if you get up early in the morning you will be looked after. Leo’s policies need to change & change fast or perhaps the people of Ireland need to change Leo . For years we are complaining about the Taoiseach costing the state in the region of €180 k +expenses, Leo is costing the state €5 180 000 + expenses. How far would that €5m go on consultants to relieve the backlog? But no, pr is more important.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot?CMP=fb_gu@Windy Atlantic Way:
Neoliberalism , the ideology of both FG and FF are the root of all these problems.
@Gillian Weir Scully: Wasted in the way your beloved blueshirt heroes are wasting it?
Sure, I’m sure you’ll be happy enough now that kids too are lying on trollies in our children’s hospitals too…..
@EdgeOfTheWorld: No. God love you petal. Wasted in the way that protein is better for you than sugar.
@Gillian Weir Scully: In all fairness, you are one of the sicker members of our society.
I blame the cuts to the mental health budget.
As a parent who had a seriously ill (life or death) child, I can not thank this consultant enough for saving his life on multiple occasions, access to her is based on triage and our first appointment with her was the next day after he was diagnosed, just to show that serious patients do get seen quickly.
Blame make of the system, not the doctors, the HSE needs some serious LEAN experts in to sort out the process and entry and exit in hospitals.
@Helen Bansal: well said.
Leo, as a medical doctor and Taoiseach, should hang his head in shame at the plight of these innocent little children.
@Pat Redmond: Hanging your head in shame will not fix the problem money will. Who will pay more to help innocent sick children?
@Gillian Weir Scully: FFG have spent record amounts on health and cannot fix the problems.
Money isn’t the issue, incompetence from the top down is….
But, as long as your health minister, the one with a degree in spin, is there, you’ll swallow whatever he throws at you.
You and your ilk are the root of all the problems in Irish society.
@EdgeOfTheWorld: No name or photo. Got to say not interested in your opinion as inaccurate.
@Gillian Weir Scully: Ya, seen your FB profile ok.
No wonder most of your mates emigrated.
Keep regurgitating the blueshirt line, I’m sure you feel safer that way.
It’s criminal that we can’t look after the most vunarable in life , by neglecting these children at that age it adds to the hospital list for years to come.
@Windy Atlantic Way: Not criminal. We can’t afford to mind them along with everyone else.
I refuse to believe that there are not Cardiologists out there who, if seriously interested in the lives of children and not running lucrative private practices [often in public hospitals] would be in Temple Street, saving lives. What happened to the Hippocratic oath?
These men are not wonderful, they chose a profession that saves lives. They have a nice Salary [and deserve one]. Politicians on the other hand don’t, and keep getting higher wages whilst they do nothing to end this two tier system.
Why aren’t these poor little mites sent to London? abroad for proper treatment under EU legislation if we are that much of a third world Health country.
@Rosemarie Martin: there is no reason why our hospitals can’t do what the London hospitals are doing, they have their own population to look after along with ours , what are they doing right & ours are doing wrong? after all the majority of the hospital staff in London are Irish.
@Windy Atlantic Way: Of course you are not bonkers. Have you read the news about the awful state in UK and NHS and their hospitals.
@Gillian Weir Scully: Whatabut that then, eh?
Mind you, as your heroes are ran from London (Edmonds Elder), we can see why the blueshirts want a run down public health service.
Plenty of money in that for Maltese tax exiles who buy private hospitals at knockdown prices…..
Sorry of course I meant both men/women Cardiologists lest I am lambasted. Haven’t had enough coffee.
@Rosemarie Martin: we have the lowest number of paediatric cardiologists per capital across Europe. The cardiologists are so busy in this country and do both have the resources or the time to expand services as you suggest. Nothing to do with private practice. In paediatrics all sick children are seen to in accordance to how sick they not their private health cover.
@Afif EL-Khuffash: not quite true. If you have the money 200-250euros.you can see the same consultant from the childrens.hospital in.their private pratice in a matter of weeks
Isn’t it easier for FG to let these kids die?
Cheaper in the long run after all…..
Sick country!
@EdgeOfTheWorld: Off the world.
@Gillian Weir Scully: A dead child is one less child for your blueshirt mates to be concerned with.
It’s all about the money with your lot after all…..
@EdgeOfTheWorld: Fg have one hell of a good PR team , all about looks with no substance .
@EdgeOfTheWorld: they are being treated like a burden on the state like the homeless. These honest people are human & deserve a right to life , problem is if you are not rich or crooked you are not welcome . Give the government another pay rise for looking after the elite.
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