Data revealed on waiting times for treatment at MUH

A total of 4,551 patients referred by their GPs for treatment by a consultant at Mayo University Hospital are on waiting lists that vary between zero and 24 months.

The information was provided to Cllr Michael Kilcoyne in response to a query he raised at this month’s meeting of the Mayo HSE West/North West forum.

A breakdown of figures provided by the HSE showed that waiting lists for Cardiology varied from 474 on waiting lists between 0-12 months with 32 waiting for 12-14 months, while 188 were waiting up to 12 months to see a Dermatology consultant, with 126 waiting 12-24 months and 129 waiting more than 24 months. A total of 453 are on a waiting list to see an Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) consultant while over 522 are waiting for General Medicine treatment, 737 for General Surgery, 363 for Gynaecology and 927 for Orthopaedics. A total of 149 await Paediatric Medicine, 312 are waiting for Respiratory Medicine and 102 await Urology treatment.

Commenting on the data, Cllr Kilcoyne said he felt especially sorry “for the fella that has the cardiology problem that’s waiting between 12 and 24 months because if the heart is bad for that length he is in trouble.” Integrated Health Area Manager for Galway/Roscommon, Ann Cosgrove, told Cllr Kilcoyne that two new cardiologists had been appointed to MUH in the last two years and would have been helping to deal with the backlog. She said those would be non-urgent cases but where intervention was needed, the patient would be referred to the specialist unit in Galway.

Cllr Kilcoyne asked how would a patient “know they were bad or need to be referred?”, to which Ms Cosgrove advised: “We would always tell patients to ask their GP to have more contact with the consultant, if they have concerns. If, say, a condition has deteriorated, that would be your first point of call.”