A Sligo dermatologist says he has been waiting two years to have an examination light installed, while services for patients with skin problems are “dismantled” by hospital management.
Dr Dermot McKenna has written to GPs in the northwest apologising for the state of dermatology services and urging them to put pressure on management in the Saolta hospital group to make improvements.
Skin cancer patients are suffering delayed diagnosis, impacting on their chances of survival; teenagers with acne are being left with scarring; and the lives of eczema and psoriasis patients are being destroyed because of inability to access care, Dr McKenna states in his letter.
“For years dermatology in the northwest has been ignored, neglected and quite frankly dismantled by management both locally and by Saolta centrally, whereas there has been significant expansion in other regions,” he says.
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According to the Sligo-based consultant, he has fewer nursing hours than when he started 20 years ago, has lost half his secretarial office space and had no secretary for the month of October.
“I can’t even get an examination light installed to properly examine patients after two years of trying. All this in the context of being single-handed with thousands of patients awaiting their first appointment, a wait time of over four years for 4,000 patients. Only urgent cases are coming off that list. This has made recruitment into the region very difficult.”
Independent Sligo-Leitrim TD Marian Harkin, who has campaigned for improved services locally, said it was “incredible” Dr McKenna was struggling to obtain lighting for his premises.
“It’s a small thing but it tells a story about the lack of supports for staff trying to do their job,” she said. “The immediate issue is that delays in diagnosis could make the difference between a good recovery for a patient or a poor one, or even life and death.”
Dr McKenna’s letter was prompted by the retirement of Dr Pat Podmore from Derry, who for more than 25 years provided a dermatology clinic in Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH) one day a week.
He said he has heard “nothing” from management since Dr Podmore left and “it is simply not possible for me to absorb Dr Podmore’s patients”.
Asked about his claims, Saolta said the model for dermatology care in the northwest has always been a service based in Sligo University Hospital “and this remains the case”.
Although Dr Podmore is no longer running a weekly clinic, she has agreed to continue seeing some existing patients on a monthly basis, a spokesman said.
Saolta has secured funding for two new dermatologists for the northwest, who will deliver two weekly clinics in Letterkenny.
“Extensive recruitment campaigns have been under way for both permanent and temporary posts. These campaigns remain ongoing,” it said.
There are 1,382 patients on the dermatology waiting lists in LUH and 2,246 in Sligo.
