Operations waiting list gets shorter but names still exceed 22,600

The number of patients waiting for some sort of surgical operation dropped slightly between January and June but there were still 22,621 names on the list in the middle of the year, figures released in Parliament show.

Waiting lists for eye surgery have gone down in the first half of the year but there has been an increase in the number of people waiting for orthopaedics operations.

Social Policy Minister John Dalli said in Parliament that the number of ophthalmic patients waiting for surgery, including for cataracts, fell by just over 300 - from 6,157 to 5,847 - between January and June. The vast majority of them - 5,628 - were waiting for cataract surgery.

The question of waiting lists for operations has become a burning issue in the past years. Just recently, The Sunday Times revealed that the government was considering buying facilities at St Philip's Hospital to tackle the bed shortage at Mater Dei, which is impacting the number of operations that can be performed there.

Even though progress was registered in certain areas, the waiting list for orthopaedic operations rose by more than 460, with 10,660 waiting for different operations, including knee and hip replacements. These included 1,559 patients who were on the list of a retired orthopaedic consultant.

Over 700 patients are waiting for a total hip replacement and 2,720 need a knee replacement.

Mr Dalli said the waiting lists were evaluated between January and February and again between June and July. It was not possible to give details on how many patients had been added to the waiting list this year and how many were already there in previous years. He said the waiting lists were now being centralised and the quoted figures could vary.

The figures show there were 2,282 patients waiting for cardiologic interventions, including angiograms and pacemaker insertions, 21 more than in January.

There was also an increase in the number of patients waiting for ear, nose and throat operations, with almost 700 requiring minor, intermediate or major surgery. The figure stood at 557 at the end of January and the beginning of February.

The waiting list for general surgery went down by almost 500, with 2,138 waiting for operations including in the breast, thyroid and gall bladder.

There are 142 patients waiting for plastic surgery, an increase of 15 over the beginning of the year.

Just over 80 patients are waiting for neurology operations, up from 33 in January, and 176 need urology operations, down by 21.

There was a slight decrease in patients waiting for gynaecology operations, which went down from 109 to 94.