\n
In Northern Ireland, the Royal College of Surgeons has described the waits for children\u2019s surgery as \u201cdire\u201d.<\/p>\n
Niall McGonigle, a thoracic surgeon in Belfast, says thousands of children have been waiting four or five years. He says he has sent out \u201can SOS\u201d to the Northern Ireland Assembly over the severe backlog.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren are suffering. We can no longer sit by and allow this to happen because we do know that patients are coming to harm,\u201d the surgeon told the BBC.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat may have been a relatively straightforward operation turns into a more complex operation which is more difficult for the surgeon, but more importantly, more difficult for the child.\u201d<\/p>\n
In extreme cases, very long delays in surgery risk leaving a child inoperable.<\/p>\n
Six-year-old Jack Dorrity, from Ballymena, has cerebral palsy and has been waiting for a hip operation since he was three.<\/p>\n
Back then, surgeons at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children said Jack needed an operation immediately on both his hips, to stop his muscles pulling them out of their sockets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Aodhan Roberts\/Belfast Telegraph<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nJack’s father says the longer he waits for an operation, the more he is suffering<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n\n
But he has been stuck on the waiting list so long that one hip has now dislocated and is growing up towards his waist. Jack\u2019s father, Leon, says the longer his son waits, the more he\u2019s suffering.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny time we put our arms under his legs to lift him out of his chair, he\u2019s sore. He winces, he cries. He\u2019s quite upset, so we know it\u2019s causing him pain,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Because Jack\u2019s hip has come out of its socket, performing surgery will be more difficult, and it would take too long to do both hips at the same time. So Jack now needs two, six-hour operations.<\/p>\n
But the hospital has told Jack\u2019s parents it can\u2019t do a six-hour operation because it would mean cancelling too many other patients. Last year the trust cancelled 566 children\u2019s procedures.<\/p>\n
Leon has been warned if Jack waits much longer for surgery, it may not be possible to put his hip back in. Instead, surgeons may have to cut off the top of his leg bone completely. Jack would be left more disabled and unable to bear weight on his leg.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s going to have a floppy leg and his hips will be unbalanced, which can lead to scoliosis. But if we missed the hip surgery, are we going to miss the scoliosis surgery?<\/p>\n
\u201cI get angry for Jack. They\u2019re failing children and it\u2019s the children with the greatest needs that are being failed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust said in a statement it was under increased and sustained pressure and was very sorry it has not been able to give Jack his surgery. It said it was exploring all possible options to help him.<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland\u2019s Department of Health told us it was trying to maximise the existing capacity in paediatric surgery, but it could not add any more capacity with the funding it received in the budget.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just now By\u00a0Jane Deith and Alys Harte,\u00a0BBC File on 4 Alex Smith Georgina, 16, is one of 601 children waiting for heart surgery in England The number of children receiving treatment in private hospitals across the UK rose by almost a quarter last year to more than 46,000, according to new data seen by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1979,"featured_media":12939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worlddailyinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12938"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worlddailyinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worlddailyinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worlddailyinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1979"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worlddailyinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worlddailyinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worlddailyinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worlddailyinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worlddailyinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worlddailyinfo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}