More than 2,000 children wait in excess of a year for heart specialist

More than, 2,000 children have been waiting for more than a year to see a heart specialist, with more than half of those waiting for over 18 months.

Some 558 children are waiting more than 18 months for an outpatient appointment at Children's University Hospital Temple Street, with 546 and 47 waiting for appointments at Our Lady's Children's Hospital Crumlin and Tallaght respectively.

In total, 2,069 children were waiting for an outpatient appointment for cardiology at the end of June, latest figures show.

Some 350 children have been waiting more than 18 months for plastic surgery between Crumlin and Temple Street hospitals.

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A further 447 children have been waiting over 18 months to see a rheumatologist at the Crumlin hospital.

Fianna Fáil spokeswoman on children and youth affairs Anne Rabbitte said the figures were a "damning indictment" of Minister for Health Simon Harris's record in office.

“It’s simply inexcusable that for example 2,069 children are waiting over a year to see a heart specialist – indeed more than half of them are waiting over 18 months,” Ms Rabbitte said.

Ophthalmology delays

“The lists for ophthalmology are even worse, with 2,277 waiting to see an eye specialist for more than a year.

“Overall, an analysis of latest waiting list figures reveals a total of 54,789 children waiting for an appointment – 17,639 of them for more than a year and 10,541 for over 18 months. It’s genuinely shocking that children are waiting so long just to have an outpatient consultation,” she added.

“Despite these ever-increasing waiting lists and waiting times, there appears to be no sense of urgency in addressing this issue.

“You would think a twelvefold increase in the space of two years would generate an increase in activity, but Fine Gael seems content to allow waiting lists for both adults and children.” Ms Rabbitte noted the “long-promised” 2018 outpatient action plan had still not been published more than half-way through the year.

“These lengthy lists are having a detrimental impact on children. It’s a scandalous situation and cannot be tolerated any longer,” she said.

Action plan

Mr Harris told the Dáil earlier this month in response to a parliamentary question that his department was working with the Health Service Executive and the National Treatment Purchase Fund to finalise the action plan.

“This plan will support the HSE’s compliance with their National Service Plan targets, reduce the growth in the number of patients waiting for outpatient services, improve the accuracy of the waiting list, and trial a number of NTPF-funded interventions, including weekend and out-of-hours clinics,” Mr Harris said.

He said the Children’s Hospital Group had been allocated an additional€9 million for paediatric orthopaedics, including scoliosis services, to further reduce waiting times for such services and support the development of a sustainable paediatric orthopaedic service.

In addition, the group continued to work with the NTPF to manage long waiting lists for “clinically appropriate groups”.