Waiting list of 8,500 to see specialists

MORE than 8,500 people are waiting to see specialists, according to waiting list figures for one of the country’s largest hospitals.

Figures for Cork University Hospital (CUH) show a total of 8,603 people on its outpatient waiting lists, with the highest numbers in orthopaedics and opthalmology — at 2,442 and 1,468 respectively. A further 1,200 outpatients are waiting to see a neurologist.

In addition to the high numbers awaiting specialist assessment, waiting times are also substantial in some specialities, particularly in orthopaedics where 495 people are waiting up to a year to see a specialist and another 269 are waiting up to two years. In gynaecology, 239 patients are waiting up to a year out of an outpatient waiting list of 708 and in neurology 132 people are waiting for up to a year to see a neurologist.