Waiting lists spark new form of inequality

I NOTE your shock-horror headline ‘20 years to clear hospital backlog’ (Irish Examiner, August 6). Actually the reality is worse.

The number of patients waiting for surgical procedures has gone up, not down. Over the past 15 years or so, there has been a progressive increase in the proportion of surgical procedures that can be performed as day cases have increased.

Due to advances in surgical and anaesthetic techniques and increased provision of day care facilities, a patient being added to a waiting list now may well be expected to be discharged on the day of surgery, whereas a similar patient in the past might have been expected to stay overnight.