Over 500 people currently on waiting list to see a cardiologist at Mayo University Hospital
The issue was raised at the Regional Health Forum West meeting on Tuesday by Cllr Michael Kilcoyne, who is based in Castlebar.
Speaking to the Irish Independent he highlighted just how serious this issue was,
"Cardio is the heart, if something is wrong with the heart it needs urgent attention. If you have to wait that long to see a consultant then there is something drastically wrong with the system.
'They tell you that the first few hours are most precious if you have a heart attack. Yet they expect people to wait for over a year to see a consultant to have investigations. It means it is not being given the priority that it should be,
"I just wonder how many of them are still alive if they are waiting for that long.'
Integrated Health Area Manager for Galway and Roscommon Ann Cosgrove, assured the meeting that cardiology patients on the referral waiting list would be 'non-urgent' cases. She stated that interventional cardiology cases would not be done locally in MUH, they would be referred on to University Hospital Galway.
Ms Cosgrove said in the meeting,
"They've just had two cardiologists appointed to Mayo University Hospital in the last year. That [statistic] would be a backlog as there had been one clinician there before.'
The advice given by Ms Cosgrove to any patient who might be concerned about their condition was to ask their GP to make further contact with the consultant,
'If somebody has concerns or if their condition has deteriorated in any way, your first port of call would be your GP,' she said.
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Data provided by Mary Warde, the Integrated Health Area Manager for Mayo, also revealed that a total of 4551 people are currently waiting to see a consultant at MUH.
Cllr Kilcoyne said,
"That's a huge number of people. It shows you how Mayo University Hospital has been under-resourced all of these years and continues to be the same way.
"The hospital is full now, so is Galway in the West, and this is June. What's it going to be like in December.'
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