‘People are living in pain’ - Wait for hip and knee operations ‘unacceptable’

Statistics revealed by the Trust show that current maximum waiting time for an initial consultation for joint replacement is 266 weeks, with a further maximum waiting time of 254 weeks for the actual surgery.

Speaking at a Health & Communities Committee meeting, where senior Trust staff briefed councillors on its future challenges and priorities, Colr. Farrell said: “The current waiting times for knee and hip replacement operations are unacceptable.

“We are contacted on a weekly basis by people who need these operations, have been waiting up to five years, and are no clearer on when the surgery is likely to happen.

“We were without a government and a health minister for the past three years, but that situation has thankfully changed. We now have a health minister who can make decisions, who can direct funding to where it’s needed, and waiting lists definitely need more funding.”

Colr. Farrell said there were now positive commitments to addressing “critical issues” such as delivering pay parity for nurses and staff, funding the medical school at Magee, and investing in extra student nurses and midwives.

“But”, he added, “a key test for the Executive and health minister will be the commitment around waiting times. New Decade, New Approach states that no person on a waiting list for over a year in September 2019 will still be on a waiting list by March 2021.

“People are living in pain waiting for operations. The job of the Executive, the Health Minister and the Western Trust is to help ease that pain by ensuring all required surgeries are carried out in a swift and timely manner.”