1,200 children face delays as Temple Street suspends dermatology service

Over 1,200 children awaiting a first appointment for dermatology services at Temple Street Children's Hospital may not be seen until late spring after a recruitment drive to fill a six-month vacancy at the service was unsuccessful.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said it could not provide new referrals with an appointment and had written to all affected parents to advise them of the situation.

“Temple Street hopes to be in a position to provide a partial service for first referrals in late spring 2015. If parents have any concerns about their child’s skin condition, they should contact their GP,” the spokeswoman said. Temple Street has two consultant dermatologists who work at the hospital on a part-time basis. Both of them also work in the adult dermatology service at the Mater hospital.

The HSE had advertised for a locum paediatric dermatologist for the Temple Street service since last March but a spokeswoman said no candidates had applied for the position. An advert placed in an international medical journal in November was also unsuccessful.

Candidates

“It is not an issue of lack of resources to fund a new consultant but rather lack of suitable candidates,” the hospital spokeswoman said.

A statement posted on the hospital’s website before Christmas advised parents in receipt of referral letters for the hospital’s dermatology department that their children would be placed on a waiting list and provided with an appointment once services had resumed.

Waiting list

There are 1,253 children on the waiting list for a first dermatology appointment at the hospital.

The spokeswoman said all referrals were being clinically triaged by a senior non-consultant hospital doctor in Temple Street in consultation with the paediatric cross-hospitals dermatology lead based in Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin. “Referrals triaged as very urgent are being seen by a consultant dermatologist in Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin as required,” she said.

Dr Marcus de Brun, a GP based in Rush, Co Dublin, described the move as a “gross failure” which would disproportionately affect patients in north Dublin.

He said patients with bad eczema or psoriasis, skin legions and cases where there is a suspicion of neoplasm or cancer of the skin, would now have to be sent to emergency departments to receive urgent treatment.

“We now have nowhere to send these dermatology cases other than an already overburdened casualty system.”