A woman in Northern Ireland who paid privately for cataract surgery is taking legal action to highlight lengthy NHS waiting lists in the region.
Along with another woman who is taking similar action after waiting almost four years for a neurology appointment, the case is the first of its kind in the UK.
May Kitchen, a 75-year-old retired nurse, paid for her eye surgery after waiting almost three years for NHS treatment.
The case centres on claims that the Department of Health and health trusts have a statutory obligation to provide effective healthcare within a reasonable timeframe, the BBC reports.
Barrister Ronan Lavery QC, representing both women, said the case was being taken on behalf of the “160,000 people in Northern Ireland currently waiting more than a year”.
Current waiting lists were a “glaring breach of duty to the public to provide basic healthcare,” the barrister told a hearing, held remotely at Belfast High Court.
“These are basic healthcare requirements,” Mr Lavery said. “Although they are described as elective – there is nothing elective about them.
“This is not having your teeth straightened or tummy tucked. These are necessary and basic requirements.”
Details from a 2019 Nuffield Trust review of Northern Ireland’s healthcare system were read out in court.
Lavery QC said: “These are staggering statistics. A person in Northern Ireland is 48 times more likely as a person in Wales to wait more than a year for care.”
Judge Adrian Colton said “as a citizen” he did not have to be persuaded about difficulties of waiting lists.
“It’s clear there is an issue,” the judge said, although he asked if the issue was more a political – rather than legal – one.
However, after consideration, the judge granted leave for a judicial review.
Speaking after the hearing solicitor Ciaran O’Hare, who represents both women, said: “My clients are very pleased with getting over this first but important legal hurdle.
“These are extremely important proceedings because hundreds of thousands of patients in Northern Ireland are suffering and languishing on waiting lists that are among the worst in Europe.
“The simple fact is that the extreme length of our waiting lists would never be accepted in England.
“We do not have the NHS like in England, we have Health and Social Care and our hospital waiting lists are completely out of kilter with those in England and have been some years.”
The case will be reviewed again on January 27.