Patient left waiting 'over two years' for pain injection drives to Kilkenny for treatment

Long waiting lists for essential procedures at public hospitals are causing some patients to travel large distances to seek treatment at private hospitals, a recent debate in Dáil Éireann has highlighted.

Deputy Catherine Connolly raised one example of a patient from Galway who 'was waiting over two years for an injection for pain'.

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"In the end, that person drove themselves down to the private hospital in Kilkenny and back up to Galway," she said.

"There is any number of such examples. I know an 81-year-old man who has been waiting for over two years to get on a list for surgery. He has been told that if it gets worse, he should tell the GP. He is hobbling around.

"I also know of a 60-year-old female who has been waiting two years for urgent hip surgery. I am not just throwing these examples out.

"What is going on is that we are absolutely normalising a totally abnormal situation. It is not acceptable for people to be waiting two and three years for essential surgery."