Poor patients miss surgeries because they ‘can’t afford time off’

Patients from poorer backgrounds are staying away from hospitals because they can’t afford to take time off work, a leading health executive has said.

Neil Gookian, chief executive of the Western Trust, called it “an indictment on society”.

Giving evidence to Stormont’s health committee, he said visiting orders (DNAs) were a major problem for the health service.

According to the executive director, people are “abandoning their activities at the expense of maintaining their livelihoods.”

Mr Gukian said he initially thought the patient’s absence was due to people who have to travel to meetingsbut after checking and calling patients, he was told that this was not the reason.

“I think it has to do with social deprivation. People don’t want to admit they can’t take days off from work,” he told the committee.

“This is a sad indictment of our society, so we need everyone’s support.”

Mr Gukian also said that because patients often wait so long for the procedure, by the time they are seen their condition has deteriorated.

This was one of the problems the trust was addressing through “mega clinic” sessions aimed at treating patients faster, he said.

“It could be a daytime case, but they need an inpatient clinic because their condition has really worsened while they were waiting.”

The heads of all Northern Ireland’s health trusts provided an update to the Stormont committee on Thursday.

Mr Gookian said the health service could not afford a strike over the current dispute over pay reviews.

He added that the issue of pay levels for all health workers needed to be addressed as the health service sent staff across the border to hospitals in the Republic of Ireland.