Patients on waiting lists ‘longer than necessary’

HUNDREDS of public patients in Cork could be removed from waiting lists if hospitals applied to the body charged with slashing the lists, it emerged yesterday.

The National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF), which buys treatments in the private hospital system in Ireland and Britain for patients waiting longest, confirmed that it has yet to receive submissions from Cork’s acute hospitals, despite an expansion of its system.

Of Cork’s five public hospitals, only the South Infirmary Hospital, Cork University Hospital (CUH) and the Mercy University Hospital refer patients to the Fund. Their failure to apply for inclusion means people are waiting for treatment longer than they should have to, Labour TD Kathleen Lynch said. She said some people are waiting up to four years just to see a consultant. They are waiting longer for treatment.