Waiting list for 4year old with lazy eye

tom1ie

Hi all
I'll outline the problem as best I can.
My daughter has a lazy eye and is complaining of double vision. It started off before xmas not so noticeable, but we brought her to the gp anyway.
The Gp wrote a referral letter to crumlin children's hosp.
I phoned up after xmas to enquire about the waiting list, and to why I hadn't received an acknowledgement letter, to which I found out they'd lost the letter (strange as they'd received the referral letter for the cardiologist which was in the same envelope, but that's a different matter) and that the waiting list is 12-18 months at the least, probably more.
I was advised to get my g.p to keep sending in referrals, to reiterate the deteriorating state of affairs.
Now I'm no doctor, but after doing research, this eye correction seems to be time critical, so I'm getting worried.
I asked what doc she was down to see and asked did he have a private practice, which he does.
Rang them and got an appointment for the end of Feb, which was the earliest possible, (still a 1 month wait even on private?) all the while my daughters problem is becoming more severe and causing her a lot of discomfort.
I rang them again and asked them to put us on the cancellation list to try and speed things up, which they did.
The cost to see the doc is approx €170 (can't remember exact amount) of which we can claim back a small amount thanks to our health insurance which we are lucky enough to have. The follow on appointments (of which I've read there's lots, are north of €100.
This is gonna cost a fortune!
So I tried ringing the h.s.e to find out if there was a hospital with a relatively short waiting list to see an ophthalmologist, to which the girl replied we don't have that information we are only a help line.
I'm bewildered and very angry! We don't have the money to pay these charges but we're gonna have to find it somehow.
Does anyone know of a way to find out the shortest waiting list in Ireland for ophthalmology?
I think I might contact a newspaper as they seem to be able to get the waiting time lists handy enough.
Thanks for your help guys.

tom1ie

tom1ie wrote: »

Hi all
I'll outline the problem as best I can.
My daughter has a lazy eye and is complaining of double vision. It started off before xmas not so noticeable, but we brought her to the gp anyway.
The Gp wrote a referral letter to crumlin children's hosp.
I phoned up after xmas to enquire about the waiting list, and to why I hadn't received an acknowledgement letter, to which I found out they'd lost the letter (strange as they'd received the referral letter for the cardiologist which was in the same envelope, but that's a different matter) and that the waiting list is 12-18 months at the least, probably more.
I was advised to get my g.p to keep sending in referrals, to reiterate the deteriorating state of affairs.
Now I'm no doctor, but after doing research, this eye correction seems to be time critical, so I'm getting worried.
I asked what doc she was down to see and asked did he have a private practice, which he does.
Rang them and got an appointment for the end of Feb, which was the earliest possible, (still a 1 month wait even on private?) all the while my daughters problem is becoming more severe and causing her a lot of discomfort.
I rang them again and asked them to put us on the cancellation list to try and speed things up, which they did.
The cost to see the doc is approx €170 (can't remember exact amount) of which we can claim back a small amount thanks to our health insurance which we are lucky enough to have. The follow on appointments (of which I've read there's lots, are north of €100.
This is gonna cost a fortune!
So I tried ringing the h.s.e to find out if there was a hospital with a relatively short waiting list to see an ophthalmologist, to which the girl replied we don't have that information we are only a help line.
I'm bewildered and very angry! We don't have the money to pay these charges but we're gonna have to find it somehow.
Does anyone know of a way to find out the shortest waiting list in Ireland for ophthalmology?
I think I might contact a newspaper as they seem to be able to get the waiting time lists handy enough.
Thanks for your help guys.

Just a quick update I rang the Irish times who said the h.s.e only give out a+e
Numbers and not outpatient numbers via there press office number.
So I rang the press office who said they couldn't release that info as I wasn't media, but advised me to ring the helpline, which I've already rang who gave me the answer saying we don't have that info we're only a helpline blah blah.
So I'm gonna ring the health unions to see if they have any numbers and then I'll e mail the minister I suppose. Any one got any other ideas?

Arbie

Ireland has one of the lowest numbers of ophthalmologists per head of population in Europe. Waiting lists for children and adults are huge. Routine clinic appointments can be years. Waiting lists for surgery can be over a year. Even if every ophthalmologist in Ireland worked 7 days a week, it would not be enough. We need about double the consultants that we currently have.

The Irish College of Ophthalmologists (www.eyedoctors.ie) have been campaigning for more consultant posts and shorter waiting lists for years but the government/HSE doesn't pay much heed to doctors looking for more resources.

The best way to change that is for patients to write to their TDs, the Minister for Health, and hospital CEOs. If even 10% of patients did this it would put huge pressure on the government and HSE.

m12617

Hi Tom1ie. I am sorry to hear of your situation. It sounds like your child does not necessarily need to see a surgeon. There are many eye doctor practices that can treat "amblyopia" which the the medical term for a lazy eye. Here is a list. I hope this helps and many of these places I presume will have a shorter waiting list than the public system and seeing a medical ophthalmologist rather than an ophthalmic surgeon is usually cheaper although I am not sure of the exact cost:

1. Ranelagh Eye Clinic
2. Medical Optics Fairview/ Bray
3. Dr. John Keane, Athlone

The other option is to see a private paediatric ophthalmic surgeon. The options in Dublin (in no specific order) are: Professor Michael O'Keefe, Mr. Donal Brosnahan, Ms. Kathryn McCreery. For the initial treatment any of the medical practices above are able to sort out the problem. If surgery is required at any stage, you can be referred on to one of these surgeons.

With regarding to fixing the state of the public system, I'm afraid I have no solutions. There is supposed to be a big increase in the number of paediatric consultants when the new children's hospital opens but, as you say yourself, you're under a small amount of time pressure. I support Arbie's points about contacting your local TD.

I hope you get everything sorted out and sorry to hear you've been put in this position.

PS: I had to remove the URLs of the practices to post but all are easily googleable (if that's a word).

tom1ie

Thanks for the info guys. I contacted the independent who sent me on a link from the national treatment purchase fund, that has all the waiting list data. Makes for interesting reading!
[url]Http://www.ntpf.ie/home/inpatient.htm[/url]

Getting back to the talk in hand I rang ranelagh eye clinic and found out that they could do an appointment to see the little patient for €120 and follow ons for €80 compared with €180 and a follow on of €120 in a different practice where I had an appointment already booked. When I enquired as to the doctors name, guess what, same doctor!?
Doesn't make sense to me but there you go.