Galway hospitals pledge to clear 7,000 in-patient

By SIOBHÃÂN HOLLIMAN MANAGEMENT at Galway University Hospitals have pledged to clear more than 7,000 people off its in-patient waiting list by the end of September. This is despite University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park Hospital suffering a €20 million cut in their combined annual budgets this year and having to cope with significant staff reductions. However officials are confident that they will meet the nine month target set nationally to eliminate in-patient waiting times â€â€ and even think they can do it ahead of time. [private] Last year GUH were the only hospitals in the country that failed to reach the Health Minister's 12 month targets to deal with in-patient waiting figures. Management are adamant that this will not happen again and aim to deliver the nine month target ahead of time. While there is a definite plan to tackle the in-patient waiting list, the same optimism isn't forthcoming in dealing with the startling figure of more than 39,000 patients who are waiting to be treated as an out-patient at the hospitals. HSE West officials admitted at Tuesday evening's regional health forum meeting that they don't know exactly how many people are on the out-patient waiting list as the figure of 39,182 wasn't a validated figure. This means that patients could appear a number of times on the list or may even have passed away. The biggest wait numbers are in areas such as ear, nose and throat (ENT), opthalmology, plastics, general surgery, orthopaedics and urology. There are over 7,000 orthopaedic patients waiting for treatment as an out-patient in Galway and over 5,500 for ENT. The waiting figures are also over 2,000 in areas such as dermatology, opthalmology, plastics, urology and general surgery. A clearly irate and frustrated forum member and independent city councillor Catherine Connolly de­scribed the figures as 'utterly scandalous' and said patients have been waiting years for treatment while beds and wards were being closed in Galway's hospitals. She wasn't in favour of having beds closed in Galway's hospitals and then expecting patients to travel to Roscommon Hospital and Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe to undergo treatment. Cllr Connolly also lashed out at the recent policy of penalising hospitals €25,000 per patient if they fail to meet the target and to force the hospital to pay for that patient to be treated elsewhere, whether in a public or private hospital. Regional Director of Operations John Hennessy accepted that the waiting lists were too high and stressed that they were a major priority for the hospitals this year. He is confident that the nine month target to clear the 7,000 in-patient list will be met without incurring penalties and without using the services of any private hospital. Local Manager Tony Canavan said that waiting times in Roscommon and Ballinasloe hospitals were lower than in UHG and where practical, patients will be treated there, but he added that patients will be given the choice. Cllr Connolly said the number of empty beds in Galway's hospitals was shocking and that it was shameful that officials were giving out unvalidated figures since she first became a forum member in 2006. [/private]