15,000 patients await treatment
More than 14,000 of these are outpatients, including 1,702 children, 80 of whom are waiting six to 12 months for treatment.
Among adult inpatients, the biggest waiting list is in orthopaedics, where 487 people are awaiting treatment. For adult outpatients, urology has the biggest waiting list, with 2,556.
The speciality with the biggest paediatric outpatient and inpatient waiting list is ENT (ear, nose and throat) where 440 and 159 children respectively are on waiting lists.
Yesterday, Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte called the waiting list figures “a shocking indictment of our health services”.
“In the 2002 election,Fianna Fáil promised to end hospital waiting lists by 2004. Five years on, the Fianna Fáil-led Government has failed, and failed miserably, to meet that commitment,” he said.
The Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Incorporating the National Children’s Hospital (AMHNCH), is in Mr Rabbitte’s constituency.
Yesterday a statement from AMHNCH said the Tallaght hospital “continues to make significant progress in reducing the waiting lists”.
It said according to the HSE’s own board figures, Tallaght Hospital is the busiest outpatient service in the country, “even through our bed numbers and capacity is less than some of the larger hospitals”.
The statement said the hospital treated 205,000 patients in 2006 and currently less than 7% of patients are awaiting outpatient treatment. Based on 2006 figures this equates to approximately 14,350 patients. Of these, it said, four out of five patients were waiting less than six months.
“We are currently exploring opinions to increase our outpatient capacity,” the statement said.
The hospital treats over 22,000 inpatients annually.
Currently, less than 5.5% of these are awaiting treatment and 80% have been awaiting treatment for under six months, the statement said. This equates to approximately 1,210 inpatients.
