Children’s waiting list are a “national disgrace”.
IMO says calls for urgent action to tackle consultant recruitment crisis in order to end waiting list crisis
Friday 6th December 2019.
The revelation today that over 200,000 children are on waiting lists for health
care services is a “national disgrace” that highlights the chaos in our health
services according to the Irish Medical Organisation.
Speaking today, Dr. Matthew Sadlier, of the IMO Consultant Committee said that the news highlighted the reason why the IMO was currentlyballoting members for industrial action; “these waiting lists are inextricably linked to the recruitment and retention crisis in the health services with over 500 empty consultant posts. You can’t reduce the waiting lists if you don’t have the consultants you need to see people on those waiting lists in the first
place. It really is as simple as that.”
The IMO is currently balloting members on industrial action in a long running campaign to increase consultant numbers and to reverse the decision to slash pay of new consultants by 30% which has caused huge problems in recruiting and retention for consultants. The ballot will conclude on the 17th December and industrial action may commence in the New Year.
Dr. Sadlier said that extensive waiting times for young children in particular was doing “horrendous damage”. He said “whether it is for child psychiatry or other vital services such as speech and language therapy, special needs or disabilities, every day’s delay in a child receiving treatment causes additional damage and delays recovery. Waiting lists
that would not be tolerated in any other modern health service have been almost
normalised in Ireland but when we realise what this means for vulnerable children,
this must act as a wake-up call for the wider political system to say “enough
is enough”.