Failure to cover leave extended respiratory clinic delays

FAILURE to replace a locum doctor at one of the country’s leading children’s hospitals contributed to a massive two-year waiting list delay in a vital respiratory clinic, it has emerged.

The Irish Examiner has learned that the delay at Temple Street’s respiratory clinic occurred during the same period the facility was unable to replace a locum respiratory physician at the unit who had left on maternity leave.

As a result of the situation the clinic, which has a capacity to treat more than 800 children with serious lung complaints a year, was forced to suspend GP referrals from March 2009 until the start of this month.

In a statement responding to the waiting list revelations at the start of this week, a spokesman for Temple Street said while GPs had been told not to send patients to the clinic due to a two-year delay this timeframe has since been reduced to six months.

The spokesman said after a fresh recruitment process, a doctor has been appointed and will be in place by the end of April.

However, despite the news, Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly said the fact that children were forced to wait any lengthy period for the vital treatment highlighted the “glaring inadequacies” in the health service.

Temple Street is planning to open a €3.1 million respiratory clinic in the coming months to help improve waiting times for children withserious lung problems.

Between January and November last year the unit treated 211 inpatients, 368 day cases and 175 new outpatients for illnesses such as cystic fibrosis and asthma.