Arthritis patients in the west of Ireland are being denied the latest hi-tech drugs and therapies which could greatly relieve their problems due to the dire lack of rheumatology services in the region.
Early intervention with new treatments can improve the outcome for arthritis patients, but people living in the west have to wait for four to five years just for an appointment to see the region's only public consultant rheumatologist, Dr Robert Coughlan.
Dr Coughlan said yesterday there was only half a rheumatologist for over 300,000 people in the west. "The worst international standard is one rheumatologist per 60,000 population."
Dr Coughlan said there were 800 people on the waiting list to see him, all of whom were in pain and some in a lot of pain.
He said the main problem in the Western Health Board region was not the length of time between seeing the specialist and getting treatment, but the length of time that patients had to wait to see a consultant in the first place.
He said the health board had adopted a document two years ago indicating that there should be three more public consultant rheumatologists in the west.
This document is with the Department of Health, which says it does not have the funds to expand the services in the region.
Only in the last month, the Department rejected another application for the expansion of rheumatology services in the west.
Dr Coughlan said the people on his waiting list suffered all types of arthritis.
"What is particularly worrying are the people among the 800 who have arthritis that will cause irreparable damage to their joints before they are seen and treated properly, damage that could be preventable."
He said there had been enormous changes in the treatment of arthritis over the last five years, but there was a need for more skilled specialists to provide this treatment.
"I think there is an issue around equality of access. A lot of funding is put into cancer and cardiac conditions, justifiably, but it seems to be at the expense of other specialities. I don't think we should reduce those services, but we should look with a degree of equity on arthritis and other poorly-resourced services."
