Patients wait in agony: when will it all end?

EVERY day I deal with queries or complaints and sometimes heartbreaking stories from constituents waiting in vain for a call from their hospital to tell them they have reached the top of the waiting list.

Some are angry, some are resigned, but all are afraid and worried. They are worried that by the time their own turn comes, it will be too late, or the pain will be unbearable or their quality of life will be useless.

With our population increasing and people living longer, the proportion of elderly patients will continue to increase.

Yet, to date, the Government has failed to put in place the essential additional nursing home, respite and step-down facilities required to provide care for elderly patients who need to recuperate before going home but who do not require acute hospital facilities.

A whole range of community care services should be provided, particularly for the elderly.

There is a growing demand for home help services to be better organised and developed, to extend the scope of the service to cover more people and to provide more hours for existing clients.

There is also a problem with children who should be in care — those who are most at risk and need urgent intervention by social workers to remove them from danger and put them in places of safety. Failing troubled youths in care also calls for urgent attention.

The national cancer strategy has been curtailed in some parts of the country, much to the pain and anxiety of many people.

Instances of hundreds of patients having surgery dates postponed and prolonged must also end. Throughout our health service dedicated doctors and nurses are working under intolerable pressures.

Despite everything they do, our public health service is drifting from one crisis to another with no central policy vision of its ultimate destination.

Where is it all going to end?

Cllr Noel Collins

‘St Judes’

Midleton

Co Cork