Waiting list blitz shows pressures
After the post-Covid crackdown on waiting lists for operations began in earnest last year, Health & Social Care now faces the grim reality that whatever it does, it’s unlikely to be enough.
500 islanders were seen in the summer weekend ‘blitz’ for gastroenterology patients. In May there were 775 islanders awaiting tests or procedures. This week, that list has climbed back to 692. The MSG contract time for being seen is eight weeks. Only just over a third of islanders are being seen within that time frame. Quite a few are waiting six months.
Across all health disciplines, in 2022 a third of patients didn’t get to see a consultant or MSG doctor within the stipulated contract period.
Health’s frustrations are manifold. HSC president Al Brouard calls for investment in the hospital, investment in homes for health workers, investment in jobs and, if necessary, in expensive short-term placements to fill those jobs.
But as he said in the States last month: ‘Our experience is that the Bailiwick is not isolated from pressures elsewhere and the challenges locally mirror other Western jurisdictions.’
As demand continues to grow it will impact across HSC’s range of services. The need for a thorough review of our expectations of our health services, and what we are prepared to pay for them, gets more urgent all the time.