Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I tabled parliamentary questions on waiting times for scoliosis surgery at University Hospital Galway to which I received a reply on 2 February outlining that one patient was waiting three to six months - I know who that person is - that three people are waiting between six months and nine months - I know one of those three people - and five people are waiting are waiting for 12 months. That is a total of nine people. The general manager outlined in the reply that the waiting lists for spinal surgery is one the priorities of the Saolta University Health Care Group. He further outlined that a number of arrangements are being put in place to facilitate the level of complexity involved in relation to spinal surgery for patients with scoliosis and that the group is currently reviewing a number of resources in the context of bed availability, access to diagnostics, purchase of specialist spinal equipment and access to theatre. He stated that when the key elements required are in place, potential surgery dates for the cohort of patients can be identified and scheduled accordingly.

The patients who contacted me have not received any date whatsoever and they are still waiting. I will not name them although they said it would not be a problem if I wanted to name them. They live in Mayo and Roscommon. A surgeon dealing with one of the cases raised a serious situation in September. He said that the patient in question was one of approximately 40 under his direct care who require major, complex spinal surgery at the Galway University Hospitals. He said she had been placed on a waiting list for the surgery to take place and that the rods were taken out of her back in September due to infection and she is now waiting to have the rods replaced. Surgery is required when the curvature level reaches 50% and the curvature of the patient in question is 70%. The surgeon indicated that in the current context of the allocation to him, he does not envisage the operation taking place for the foreseeable future. He said it was the case up to approximately two to three years ago that he could perform that type of surgery at Merlin Park University Hospital and had been doing that regularly since 1996. However, as a result of the withdrawal of support services for this type of surgery, the only place capable of providing it on the western seaboard was in University Hospital Galway. With the management team he set about trying to structure a pathway that would allow that to happen, but it has not happened in a seamless, safe way to date. As a result, he could not advise the patient of a definite time or date for the operation to take place. It seems that operations were to go ahead in University Hospital Galway but the team has not been put in place to carry them out. It is not good enough for patients to wait so long for urgent surgery, in particular when one patient has a curvature of more than 70%.

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