Long wait for arthritis treatment ‘shocking’

ARTHRITIS suffers forced to wait years for treatment are becoming suicidal, an Oireachtas committee heard yesterday.

Waiting times to see a consultant rheumatologist in the west is more than four years, by which time the painful and distressing condition has seriously impacted on their lives.

Arthritis Ireland Mayo branch chairperson Mary Healy held up her gnarled hands for members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children to see. The disfigurement and disability she suffered could have been arrested had she been treated sooner.