Prostate treatment wait is three years

Patients awaiting prostate surgery must wait for up to three years for treatment, it was revealed last night. The situation has been described as "absolutely barbaric" by Mr Jim Higgins TD, of Fine Gael, who said urgent surgical cases should be treated within three months. He had raised the case of an elderly Mayo pensioner who was in constant pain and who was waiting on a call to the University College Hospital, Galway, to have surgery. The Western Health Board said because the patient was on the waiting list since November only his waiting time would be anything from two to three years.