Thousands waiting on new knees and hips

The new Health Minister Robin Swann revealed that 1,313 people in the western area were waiting for knee replacements at the end of September 2019.

A further 1,037 were waiting on hip replacements, confirmed the minister, when he was pressed for figures by the SDLP Foyle MLA Mark H. Durkan.

The figures show that waiting lists across the Derry, Tyrone and the Fermanagh area were longer than anywhere in the North apart from Belfast.

In the Belfast Trust there were 1,807 people waiting for a new knee and 1,738 people waiting for a new hip at the end of September.

“Hip and Knee replacement operations are not carried out within the Northern HSC Trust and only revision surgery is carried out within South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust,” said Mr. Swann.

However, in the Southern Trust which is much more populous than the Western Trust - there are 383,541 living there compared with 302,204 living here - the waiting lists were lower.

The new data released by Mr. Swann show 598 people were waiting on knee replacements in Armagh, Down and parts of Tyrone at the end of September.

And only 520 were waiting on new hips on the same date.