People awaiting surgery left 'in absolutely severe pain' for years: Derry & Strabane Council call for cross-border health funding reinstatement

At a recent Full Council meeting, Sinn Féin Councillor Sandra Duffy proposed that the Council write to Health Minister, Robin Swann, to request the release of funding for the Directive, which was closed in 2020.

The proposal noted that there were a “growing number of patients currently on waiting lists for surgical procedures right across the North”, with patients facing long waits for acute care and developing more complex medical conditions.

Councillor Duffy said: “Unfortunately, an all-too-often call we’re receiving in our constituency offices is from people on long waiting lists for hip and knee replacements, cataract removals and even cardiac services.

“These are people in absolutely severe pain, elderly people who have been told that they will have to wait up to seven years for vital surgery.

“While the Health Service is facing many challenges, this is one that could have been avoided. It is the outworking of a disastrous Brexit, where people in the North have been unfairly disadvantaged.

“People have been forced to live with pain and sight loss to appease a Tory-DUP agenda and the Directive closed in 2020, as Brexit took hold.

“It’s imperative that we impress the importance of reopening this scheme upon the Health Minister. Give people back hope, give them back their lives, and give them back a pain-free, independent existence.”

SDLP Councillor Catherine McDaid said reducing healthcare times were a “top priority” for the Executive, with one in three people in Northern Ireland on hospital waiting lists.

Councillor McDaid added: “When you think about how many people have been living in pain, being cared for by families burnt out by carers’ fatigue, and how many have died while sitting on a waiting list for surgery, it’s just not acceptable.

“When the Directive was in place thousands of people accessed it and could get the care they required, while reducing waiting lists at the same time.”

DUP Alderman Chelsea Cooke said people were “stressed and quite frankly fed up” waiting for treatment, leading to a migration to private healthcare and a two-tiered system.

Alderman Cooke concluded: “Northern Ireland’s patient population shouldn’t be in a position where some can afford treatment and others can’t.”

Andrew Balfour,

Local Democracy Reporter