THE number of people waiting longer than the maximum time of 18 weeks to see a consultant for the first time at South West Acute Hospital has shot up from 38 to 1,566 in three years.


The figures obtained by the Ulster Unionist Party have increased “way beyond any reasonable acceptance” according to Fermanagh-south Tyrone MP Tom Elliott. 


“The revelation that so many people are waiting longer in the South West Acute hospital than what the Minister and the Department of Health says should be the very maximum is totally outrageous. While for some time I have been aware of growing pressures, the scale of the problem which has now for the first time been revealed to the Ulster Unionist Party at Stormont is immense,” he said.


Mr. Elliott said the reason that targets exist is because it is “very widely accepted that the longer patients are forced to wait for treatment the greater harm they may ultimately come to.”


“Each of those 1,566 people waiting longer than 18 weeks, mainly from Fermanagh and Tyrone have been badly failed and totally let down. Amongst those lingering on the list there will be people anxiously awaiting a further test or diagnosis, as well as many others in pain and discomfort awaiting treatment. The plight of some of the people coming to my colleagues and I regarding the delays is heart breaking. These include people who are desperately awaiting orthopaedic surgery. 


“It’s rightly considered cruel and inhumane to knowingly keep an animal in pain and yet for some reason the Department of Health thinks it’s acceptable to have thousands of people waiting indefinitely for treatment,” he said. 


“The Doctors and nurses within the hospital do a tremendous job, under extreme pressure, no blame for this can be directed at them. It is deeply regrettable that as these figures reveal a spiralling situation in our local hospital. There is an overall failure within the Health system which is not delivering or improving services for local patients.


“Instead of fighting our nurses through the media over their modest ask for a 1 per cent pay-rise, the Department would be better working with his staff given they are the only thing keeping the local system from collapsing all together,” Mr. Elliott told The Impartial Reporter.