20 years needed to cut backlog in hospitals

HOSPITAL waiting lists will take almost 20 years to clear at the current rate of progress, despite the Government’s election promise to eliminate the 30,000 backlog within two years.

The latest hospital figures, released yesterday, show an overall decrease of just 400 in the number of patients waiting for treatment during the first three months of this year.

At that rate of reduction, the build-up of patients awaiting treatment will not be cleared for at least 18 years or until 2021.

The Government moved yesterday to put a positive spin on the latest figures, saying the number of people waiting more than 12 months for treatment had fallen by 8%.

However, critics pointed to a corresponding 8% increase in the number of patients waiting for daycare procedures in hospitals and blamed Government cutbacks for the lack of tangible improvement.

Including both daycare and in-patient cases, there are 28,719 children and adults on waiting lists across the country a minimal reduction on the 30,447 on the list when the Government first came to power in 1997.

Health Minister Micheál Martin welcomed the figures. "I am pleased with the continuing reduction in the number of patients waiting longest for in-patient treatment," he said.

However, according to an Irish Patient's Association (IPA) analysis of the figures, one in every five-and-a-half children and one in every nine adults awaiting daycare treatment have already been waiting for more than two years.

The IPA also expressed concern that one in five adults awaiting serious in-patient care had also been waiting more than 24 months.

Fine Gael health spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell said Mr Martin should hang his head in shame because, after six years in office and a doubling of health expenditure, the Government has achieved no appreciable reduction in waiting lists.

"The figures released yesterday describe the situation as of last March. It speaks volumes for the health service information systems that today's figures are not and will not be available for another six months," she said.

Labour health spokeswoman Liz McManus said virtually no progress had been made in reducing the numbers on waiting lists and called the Government's promise a sick joke.

"These figures provide further evidence that the commitment by the Minister for Health and the Taoiseach on May 6, just 10 days before the general election, to clear all waiting lists within two years, was a sick joke played on sick people," Ms McManus said.