The number includes over 100,000 waiting for at least 18 months.

With almost 559,000 patients waiting for their first hospital outpatient appointment, it is clear that the health authorities never got on top of the issue, says patient advocate, Stephen McMahon.

The new figures, which relate to the end of February, have been released by the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

Almost 557,000 patients are waiting for a first hospital consultation and thousands more have joined the queue over the last two months, it has emerged.

Urgent action must be taken to achieve a major reduction in public hospital waiting lists, patient advocate, Stephen McMahon, has said.

A long-awaited pricing review looking at the fee structure within the nursing home sector is finally set to be published.

The NTPF doesn't record the reasons why, but the Irish Patients Association says the audit suggests some patients may have got sicker and have presented to an emergency department instead.

Almost 68,000 people were waiting for an appointment for an inpatient or day case treatment at the end of September.

The accuracy of waiting list figures published by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) has been called into question by a consultant who said the official figures were a “tenfold under-estimation” of the actual situation vis-a-vis his own specialty.

The number of patients waiting to see a hospital consultant has reached a new record high of almost 570,000.

BlackBee Investments has also created a new company, Aperee, to manage what will be the single largest private sector investment in the long-term healthcare sector.

More than half a million people are waiting for their first hospital out-patient appointment.

There are claims that outpatient waiting lists may be worse than we thought.

Sinn Féin says the Health Minister needs to apologise over the latest outpatient waiting list figures.

An “aggressive and unfair” validation of outpatient lists has been used to achieve a reduction in figures, a GP group claims.

A review of how the National Treatment Purchase Fund negotiates prices with private and voluntary nursing homes under the Fair Deal scheme is almost complete.

A 90-year-old West Cork man who endured a 1,000km journey for an eye operation is doing well.

There were 494,530 patients last month waiting to be seen by a consultant at out- patient clinics, a reduction of just 788 on the previous month, new figures show.

Approximately 3,400 procedures are being cancelled in public hospitals every month, according to the latest figures.

Irish hospitals may soon be unable to guarantee “routine” services as a basic right to patients due to the severe strain record-breaking new waiting list figures are putting on the system.

Women with serious gynaecological problems including incessant bleeding, fibroids and painful sexual intercourse are increasingly turning to their GPs and TDs to lobby for them in a desperate bid to access treatment at Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH).

If being ‘ashamed’ and ‘heartbroken’ over hospital waiting lists is the best Simon Harris can offer, the issue will never be resolved, suggests Health Correspondent Catherine Shanahan.    

A number of politicians have welcomed what appears to be a breakthrough in finding a solution to tackling excessive gynaecological waiting lists at Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH).

Latest: The Irish Medical Organisation says overcrowding is now a year-round problem and that acute beds are urgently needed to free up Emergency Departments.

Twice as many patients are languishing on hospital trolleys since a decade ago when the crisis was declared a national emergency.

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The Government has launched yet another initiative to tackle endoscopy waiting lists as figures show that almost half of the 19,850 people awaiting the diagnostic test are not being seen within the target time of 13 weeks for routine cases.

The country’s beleaguered health system has come under fresh criticism after the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine slammed the “anaemic” response to emergency department overcrowding which it claimed will mean more patients dying.