Hospital waiting lists 'set to rise'

Cosmetic surgery waiting lists set to grow

Hospital waiting lists in Northern Ireland are set to rise even further with the loss of the province's only specialist burns surgeon.

Kalid Khan, who has been the consultant plastic surgeon at the regional burns unit in Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital, is taking up a post in England early next year.

But his departure will mean the end of non-urgent plastic surgery, such as breast reconstruction, which is carried out at the Ulster Hospital, Dundonald.

Derek Gordon, consultant plastic surgeon at the Ulster, said waiting lists would grow because consultants at that hospital would have to treat emergency burns cases until the vacancy was filled.

The burns unit had just one plastic surgeon

"We feel that in the absence of a specialist burns surgeon that the remaining plastic surgeons are best qualified to provide this service," he said.

"If we're to provide a cover for the burns unit, it will mean a virtual cessation of all non-urgent plastic surgery in Northern Ireland.

"This would mean that we would be able to manage the cancer and the trauma and urgent cases affecting children, for instance.

"But it will mean a cessation of virtually everything else, because we would have to move from our base hospital in the Ulster to the Royal to do this."

Waiting lists for plastic surgery in the province are already very long, with a minimum wait of two years for an elective operation.

Mr Gordon said it would mean longer waiting lists for such surgery as reconstruction work on major scars or post-mastectomy reconstruction after breast cancer.

But he said the current level of staffing might not be able to treat more severely injured patients, who may have to be sent to other parts of the UK.

Mr Gordon also pointed to a funding problem in the burns unit which has meant much of the equipment has been there since it opened in 1979.

Any patient with a severe burn is one of the most critically injured patients that the NHS has to deal with

Derek Gordon

He said new equipment had to be borrowed and older equipment was being used far beyond its normal lifespan.

"There's been a problem with replacing some very basic equipment and a problem with getting some other equipment repaired," he said.

"These bills are small bills. The amount of money has perhaps been only £250. That money has not been forthcoming."

The burns unit has treated people with appalling injuries such as those wounded in the Troubles, like the 1998 Omagh bombing. But it has treated injuries from industrial and road accidents as well.

"Any patient with a severe burn is one of the most critically injured patients that the NHS has to deal with," said Mr Gordon.

"You cannot run a major incident that involves burns without a specialist burns unit.

"It has to be able to deal with, if necessary, a large number of very severely injured patients all at one time. It's very labour intensive.

"It requires an awful lot of medical input, nursing input and all the other allied staff as well. It's an expensive unit to run."

The plastic surgery department in Northern Ireland is currently celebrating 50 years in existence.

Later on Friday, the father of a woman badly burned in the Omagh bombing said he was disgusted by the news that Northern Ireland is to lose its only burns specialist.

Malachy Keyes said his daughter Donna Marie McGillion was devastated, and he is demanding a meeting with the health minister, Bairbre de Brun.

Mr Keyes said: "We need answers and we need them now.

"We are not prepared to wait until 22 December until the consultant leaves to get the answers, we want them now.

"And we want proper plans put into force so that whenever he goes someone is there to take over."