“Serious failings” in central cardiology department

This is a soundbite today, while the country enjoys the first Bank Holiday of December: the cardiology department of the Centro Medio Tejo has “serious failings”, particularly in the sense of patients who need treatment waiting for a consultation. SIC television news reports that heart patients can wait more than two years to be seen. This is serious but it is not in any way, shape or form ‘news’: many services have ‘impossible waiting lists’; patients first face long waits for consultations (many of which should be ‘urgent’) and then the prospect of even more waiting for whatever treatment is prescribed. SIC’s report today highlights the case of an elderly woman whose pension is so meagre that she says she cannot afford to go private: all she can do is pray.