Hospital waiting list figures fall slightly

HOSPITAL waiting lists are falling only slightly, despite record funds ploughed into the health service over the last year.

Latest figures show there are still 24,850 people waiting for hospital treatment, a reduction of almost 7% over the last 12 months.

Health Minister Micheál Martin described the fall as a significant reduction and insisted figures would continue to drop now the national treatment purchase fund had been established.

But Labour’s health spokeswoman Liz McManus said the figures were pathetic and made a mockery of Fianna Fáil’s promise that no one would wait for treatment after 2004.

“The Government has made much play of the fact that health spending has more than doubled in the last five years.

“But all they have to show for this is a 1% reduction in three months and rapidly deteriorating hospital services,” Ms McManus said.

Some 8.25 billion has been ploughed into the health service this year, including 70 million on new hospitals beds and the treatment purchase fund.

Yesterday’s figures, however, do not take into account waiting list reductions under the 40 million treatment purchase scheme.

It is expected this alone will cut waiting lists by 1,900 before the end of the year.

While figures overall are dropping slowly, there has been more progress in targeting waiting lists in selected areas such as ear, nose and throat, orthopaedic and cardiac treatment.

There are 3,500 people waiting for ear, nose and throat procedures, a drop of 1,300; 4,264 waiting for orthopaedic procedures, a drop of 350; and 1,138 waiting for heart treatment, a drop of 300.

But worryingly, there are still a large number of patients who have been waiting for vital treatment for more than a year. These patients are being targeted as part of the national treatment purchase fund scheme and health boards are currently trying to contact anyone who has been waiting more than a year for treatment.

Hospitals around the country have had a mixed performance in the last year but generally the larger acute

hospitals have improved.

The numbers on waiting lists went up dramatically at St John’s Hospital in Limerick and Cavan General Hospital, while Tullamore General Hospital, Limerick’s Mid-West Regional Hospital and the UCH in Galway are among the best performers.