Patients in long wait for specialist treatment

WHAT is the future for maxillofacial or jaw surgery in the Southern Health Board? There are currently over 40 patients awaiting such surgery within the board’s orthodontic service.

These patients have been through two years of orthodontic treatment prior to surgery and many of them are now being forced to wait a further two years for appropriate surgery.

Contact with the National Treatment Purchase Fund appears to be a waste of time as the patients are promised treatment again and again and still it is not provided. Many of these patients are aged 18, 19 and 20, going to university, starting new careers, and their lives are being put on hold until the surgery is carried out.