Have a heart – 400 people on cardiology waiting list at St Luke’s Hospital
By COLIN BARTLEY
NEARLY 400 people in Kilkenny are waiting to see a cardiologist for an outpatient appointment in St Luke’s General Hospital, new figures reveal.
And 15 people have been waiting a year or more to get an appointment with one of the cardiology consultants at our local hospital.
The figures emerged from the monthly National Treatment Patient Fund (NTPF) outpatients waiting list report, which records the number of patients waiting to see consultants in the Irish health system.
There are currently 378 people waiting to be seen by a consultant cardiologist in St Luke’s, of which 30 are waiting more than six months to be seen.
The Irish Hospital Consultants Associations (IHCA) this week launched the #CareCantWait campaign which warns of the impact on patients of long waiting time.
The IHCA’s spokesperson and Director of Women’s Health at Ireland East Hospital Group Dr Rhona Mahony said: “There are so many simple procedures that can change lives and radically improve a patient’s quality of life. Not to be able to offer that to patients, in a country like Ireland, is really quite distressing, mainly for patients, but also for those charged with giving care.”
The IHCA estimates one in five permanent consultant posts in the public health service is either unfilled or filled by temporary appointments, causing delays for patients.
