A shocking 47,255 children are waiting to see a specialist doctor in Ireland.
The damning figure is more than the entire population of the country’s largest town, Drogheda, Co Louth.
It includes 19,000 kids who have been waiting more than 12 months and more than 5,000 who need to see a heart specialist.
The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has laid the blame for the lengthy waiting lists on paediatric consultant shortages.
RCSI Professor of Paediatrics and Consultant Paediatrician at Temple Street Children’s Hospital, Alf Nicholson, said: “It’s very unacceptable to have a waiting time of anything other than three to six months at most for a young child or infant to see a specialist.
“Sadly, at the moment our wait times are well above that and that is very distressing to be a part of.
“The effects that long waiting lists have on patients is significant… it is solvable if we bring in new specialists. Specialists that should already be a part of the health service system.”
Out of the three hospitals that make up the CHI – Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin, Temple Street Children’s University Hospital and the National Children’s Hospital at Tallaght Hospital:
- 7,988 children are waiting to see a paediatric ENT specialist
- 5,165 are waiting to see a paediatric cardiologist
- 3,735 are waiting to see a paediatric orthopaedic specialist and,
- 1,989 children are waiting to see a paediatric surgeon.
It comes after it was revealed last week the new Paediatric Outpatient and Urgent Care Centre at Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, which has cost €25million, will now only open on a phased basis because of “vacancies in consultant posts”.
Currently, one in five permanent consultant posts advertised by the HSE are either unfilled or filled by temporary appointments.
A recent Medical Council report found over the period 2015 to 2017, more than 700 specialists either left Ireland to work abroad or left the profession.
As part of the #CareCantWait campaign, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Rhona Mahony recently called for an end to substantial differences in the pay of Irish consultants.
It came after it was revealed public hospital consultants recruited after 2012 are paid 30% less than consultants recruited before that date.
She said: “It’s no surprise our waiting lists are long but this has a huge impact on quality of life.
“There are so many simple procedures that can radically improve a patient’s quality of life and to not be able to offer that to patients in a country like Ireland is really quite distressing.”
