Failure to type 1 letter a day leaves patients without service – Naughten
Fine Gael Deputy Health Spokesperson, De
nis Naughten TD, has described the removal of an important day surgery clinic from Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe due to lack of clerical support as “a scandal”.
“The plastic surgery service, one of the new outreach services established at the Hospital taking 24 patients per month off the Galway University Hospital backlog, is to be pulled because it seems there is no-one to type 24 letters a month.
“The lack of a clerical back-up service to type, on average, one letter per day, is now leading to a situation where people with lumps or bumps – some of which may be cancerous – are to be put on a never ending waiting list. This is a scandal.
“How can this be allowed to happen when the HSE West-commissioned Mott MacDonald report, published during the summer costing €90,000, recommended the redeployment of corporate staff to provide such support services?
“It is even more shocking when you consider that the HSE West employs the highest proportion of corporate staff compared to any other HSE region. A total of 813 – or 3.03% – of the 26,000 staff are corporate.
“It is time that we have a reality check and that the HSE prioritises the €16 billion it receives for providing the people at the front line to treat those in need of care, not more managers to massage the media.”