Postponed surgeries - Officials play politics with lives

Elective surgery and other elective procedures were postponed on average of 80 times a day across the country during the first six months of this year, according to the Health Service Executive (HSE).

That means that there were at least 10,368 postponements, but there seems to be a general consensus that these figures are on the optimistic side.

There is a gross disparity in the figures for the various networks around the country.

In the Network 10 hospital region, consisting of the Mater Hospital, Beaumont, and James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown, there were 4,220 postponements, whereas there were just 292 postponements in the Network 8 area, which covers other Dublin Hospitals.

But in the adjacent Network 9 area there were 2,786 postponements.

The best record in the country was recorded in the Network 7 area covering Counties Limerick, Clare and parts of Tipperary. There were only 17 postponements there in the six months. But in the adjacent Network 2, covering Co Kerry and parts of Cork, there were 1,100 postponements.

The figures demonstrate a frightening inequity in the quality of treatment. Is this due to maladministration on the part of the bureaucrats working in the health service, or to political preferment on the part of politicians? Doctors in Kerry complained of discrimination in health facilities in relation to Accident and Emergency (A&E) or cardiac cases. Kerry doctors picketed Kerry General Hospital in Tralee yesterday, not in a protest for more pay for themselves, but for proper services for their patients.

Even though the county has the highest incidence of heart disease in the country, there is only one cardiologist. Viktor Kochka is actually being shared with a local private hospital, with the result that public patients have only 40% of his cover. By comparison, there are eight cardiologists in Cork.

As Kerry is a peripheral area with many remote places, it is all the more important that the Kerry General Hospital should be properly resourced, especially when it has no full-time air ambulance. Prompt treatment is vital.

A matter of minutes can mean the difference between life and death.

Speaking on behalf of Kerry doctors on RTÉ News yesterday, John Casey said that Kerry doctors have to act cleverly to route patients through Cork hospitals to ensure their patients get favourable treatment at Cork Regional Hospital.

Eighteen months ago a consultant was appointed to the A&E in Kerry General Hospital, but Seán O’Rourke, the consultant, has been under-resourced ever since. He recently applied for a similar position in Tullamore, where he would have more staff.

In Kerry General Hospital, for instance, there is no registrar attached to the A&E Department.

There are just five junior doctors at the SHO level, whereas there are six registrars and five SHOs in the Tullamore hospital.

Why is there such disparity when both hospitals essentially serve the same population? Is it because Brian Cowen, the local deputy, is a cabinet minister, or is it a case of victimising Kerry because one of the local deputies is Martin Ferris of Sinn Féin? Kerry people are being treated unfairly, and this is patently undemocratic. Worse, it is contemptible and utterly outrageous that officials should play squalid politics with the lives of people.