Children have to wait more than a year to be seen by a cardiologist in the outpatient department of the State's largest children's hospital, it has emerged.
Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin, has confirmed that the waiting time for routine cardiac outpatient referrals is now more than 12 months. It stressed this was the waiting time for non-urgent cases.
However, a woman whose child has a heart murmur and who was told by her GP that the child should be checked out by a heart specialist is among those on the waiting list and she told The Irish Times she could not believe it when she was informed how long she would have to wait.
Details of the lengthy waiting time emerged a day after this newspaper reported that the Health Service Executive had warned the hospital it faced a deficit of €16 million at the end of the year unless it controlled costs and cut staffing levels back to approved levels.
The hospital has 159 staff more than approved and argues this is because its staff ceiling has been set too low.
It also claimed, in a letter to the HSE last week, that its funding for 2007 had effectively been cut and this was why it was running over budget. It said it could not make cutbacks without affecting patient services including ward and theatre closures, as well as the closure of intensive care beds.
In a statement yesterday, the hospital said it was in ongoing communication with the HSE about its budgetary requirements. "It is anticipated that the issue of funding shortfall will be resolved with the support of the HSE," it said.
The HSE also said it was in ongoing communication with the hospital about its budget. "This is part of the routine and regular dialogue which takes place annually between the HSE and hospitals," it said. "Similar discussions took place at this time last year with Crumlin hospital and similar fears were expressed then. By the end of 2006 the hospital had remained within budget and there had been no staff cutbacks or redundancies," it added.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Crumlin hospital said last evening that the hospital had interviewed for an additional cardiologist yesterday and it was hoped this would reduce the waiting time for children in outpatients.
Labour's health spokeswoman Liz McManus said the funding crisis at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children was very serious and created unacceptable risks for the care of children.