Northern Ireland’s waiting list crisis: the critical role of anaesthetists

The Royal College of Anaesthetists’ highlight the critical role anaesthetists play in tackling the Northern Ireland waiting lists.

• Health and Social Care (HSC) waiting lists have grown dramatically. Over 120,000 patients are currently on inpatient and day case waiting lists.
• Most operations require an anaesthetist; however, HSC currently has a 14.6% shortfall of anaesthetists. This severely undermines efforts to get waiting lists down.
• It is vital that workforce shortages in anaesthesia and other healthcare professions are addressed with a comprehensive workforce plan.   
• HSC has too many cancelled operations, surgical complications, and extended stays in hospitals – often due to secondary health problems patients face (such as diabetes or obesity) going unaddressed before operations.
• Waiting lists must be turned into preparation lists and the surgical pathway transformed using perioperative care practices.

Today the RCoA launched its publication, “Northern Ireland’s waiting list crisis: the critical role of anaesthetists,” which calls on all parties standing for election to the Northern Ireland Assembly to commit to comprehensive workforce planning and transformation of the surgical pathway to improve health service efficiency and improve patient outcomes.

Dr Fiona Donald, President of RCoA said:

“Northern Ireland has a critical shortage of healthcare professionals, including anaesthetists. Unfortunately, the problem is set to get worse. The current workforce is ageing and there has been no increase in training places which will fuel a growing gap between supply and demand.”

“Unless urgent action is taken, there could be a shortfall of 400 anaesthetists by 2040, which would prevent up to 300,000 operations and health procedures from taking place every year”

Dr Will Donaldson, Consultant Anaesthetist and Chair of the RCoA’s Northern Ireland board said:

“Waiting lists in Northern Ireland have grown by 14% over the past year, and remain significantly longer than in the rest of the UK. This is unfair ​for patients who are waiting, often with pain and disability. In order to get waiting lists down here we need two key things: Firstly, a review of workforce planning for all healthcare professionals involved in surgical pathways, including theatre nurses and Intensive Care Medicine doctors - and with a focus on the retention of staff. Secondly, we need efforts to increase the efficiency of surgical pathways. For example, many patients who are waiting for surgery could be using this time to improve their fitness for surgery, and this is likely to reduce cancellations and complications.