Rose Lapp (Reporter)
A REPORT released last week by the Andalucian Health Department confirms that the average wait time for a surgical procedure in Andalucia is increasing at an alarming rate.
June 30 of this year saw 57,185 patients waiting for surgery, 1,515 more than the year before.
Health official Maria Jesus Montero claims that this is due not to an ineffective health system but rather to an increase in people seeking surgical procedures.
This year, a shocking 494 patients spent more than 180 days waiting to be admitted to surgery. In previous years, only two or three patients would ever have to wait this long.
These are the highest numbers the country has seen since the government first began publishing surgical waiting lists 11 years ago.
Hopefully, the Andalucian health system will be able to rise to the occasion and learn how to manage the rising number of surgery patients.
It all depends what are the surgical procedures that people are demanding. !80 days for a non essential bit of enhancement surgery seems OK, provided that appendectomies are done at once. Statistics always blur the issue, which may be why politicians love them.
Must be all the expats fault, of course.
Or Gibraltar’s, Fred.
In line with PM’s comment, how long to wait for brain tumour surgery?