Health service cut - A failure of management

NO matter how grim our circumstances, no matter how skewed our health budget is, it is hard not to think that the situation developing for children with rheumatoid arthritis represents failure of a terrible kind.

Because a pivotal consultant is about to go on maternity leave, services at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin will only be available on Mondays or Fridays. Though a locum was sought internationally, none applied for the job.

The two-day-a-week service will have to cope with 600 children and an outpatient waiting list of one year for non-urgent cases. There are 160 children on this list. As well as that, 440 children have appointments and about 30 urgent cases were waiting up to four months to be seen.