More than 1,000 people are waiting for ear, nose and throat treatment at Tullamore General Hospital, making its waiting list the biggest for any speciality in any of the State's hospitals.
Tullamore shares with the Mater and Tallaght General Hospital the unwelcome distinction of having the top three waiting lists for individual specialities.
With 1,025 people waiting for ENT treatment at the end of December, Tullamore heads the list. The Mater had the second-biggest waiting list with 950 waiting for opthalmology (mainly cataract) treatment, an increase on the previous December's 942. Third was Tallaght General Hospital with 707 people waiting for orthopaedic treatment (this includes joint replacements) compared to 779 the previous December.
Also in the top 10 biggest waiting list by individual speciality are: St Mary's Cappagh, orthopaedics, 683 at the end of December (1,416 in December 1999), Beaumont, ENT, 658 (748), Royal Victoria Eye & Ear, opthalmology, 644 (678), St Mary's Hospital, Gurranebraher, orthopaedics, 594 (622), University College Hospital Galway, plastic surgery, 593 (606) and ENT, 512 (639), Mater, cardiology, 503 (647).
Overall, the State's biggest waiting lists are for ENT, 5,690 (7,486 in December 1999), orthopaedics, 4,486 (6,304) and opthalmology, 3,253 (4,475).
The communications department of the Southern Health Board is known to journalists for the unfailing courtesy of its staff and the brevity of its statements.
Recently we noticed that Mr Dick Spring TD had asked the Minister for Health and Children about a complaint he received that a woman in Kerry could not get an appointment for a CT scan at Cork University Hospital. The Minister referred the question to the Southern Health Board. We asked the SHB what was going on.
The SHB replied, as is its custom, with a brief statement. "While it would be insensitive to discuss the medical treatment of an individual with the media, we can confirm that routine waiting lists for treatment do exist and patients are priorities according to their medical needs," it said. "Should any patient require immediate treatment, they are provided with it."
We took this to mean that, yes, a waiting list of the magnitude suggested by the complaint to Mr Spring does exist and, no, the SHB is not anxious to talk about it.
After we said last week that people in Kerry can wait the best part of a year for a scan at CUH, we got a letter from the SHB which said: "Please note CT scans are performed at Tralee General Hospital and the maximum waiting time for patients is two weeks. Kerry patients are not sent to Cork."
So why didn't it say that in the first place? It appears the SHB had not yet conveyed this information to Mr Spring and did not want him or his constituent to read it in the paper, so it issued a sphinx-like statement to The Irish Times.
As we really are fond of the people in the SHB's communications department, we are not going to say anything else about this.
hospitalwatch@irish-times.ie
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