Opinion

ANALYSIS: Poverty greater barrier to urgent healthcare post-Covid as private clinics resume work

More than 300,000 people in Northern Ireland on a waiting list as the service attempts to recover after the first wave of coronavirus
More than 300,000 people in Northern Ireland on a waiting list as the service attempts to recover after the first wave of coronavirus More than 300,000 people in Northern Ireland on a waiting list as the service attempts to recover after the first wave of coronavirus

FIVE years ago a high-profile GP questioned how consultants doing private work at a time of rocketing waiting lists could "sleep in their beds at night".

Angered at the delays faced by his patients requiring assessments for hip and knee surgery in one of the poorest pockets of Belfast, Dr Michael McKenna publicly aired his frustration in an article in The Irish News.

Criticism was also made at the time by former nursing chief Janice Smyth as to whether the Department of Health was making the "best use" of its consultant workforce, with calls for greater scrutiny.

The trade union representing the north's medics hit back, arguing that even if more NHS doctors chose to opt out of the private sector and work extra NHS hours, it would not solve the waiting list crisis as the system had neither the capacity nor funding to deliver.

Today's leak about four year delays for neurology and rheumatology patients who require an "urgent" consultant appointment comes as health chiefs attempt to rebuild a service which has been on Covid divert since March.

One of the most striking features of the first wave was how the private sector shelved it clinics and gave over facilities and staff as part of a "coming together" with the NHS.

For over a decade, desperate patients have resorted to getting loans to "go private" as they struggled with their illnesses or feared for their symptoms while stuck on hospital waiting lists.

With the resumption of private healthcare, some GPs are privately expressing how "uncomfortable" they are with a two-tier post Covid service in which poverty is an even greater barrier to accessing timely, and in some cases, life saving care.

Concerns about a consultant workforce which can see patients within weeks if they have they can afford it are now more heightened among their GP colleagues.

A second wave is looming but the ability of public and private systems to merge again and deal with the tsunami of urgent non-Covid cases surely must be a priority for NHS decision makers as part of their 'recovery' plan.