19,377 patients awaiting treatment over 3 months

THE number of patients waiting more than three months for hospital treatment has increased by 1,058 to 19,377 since April, new figures from the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) show.

The figures suggest that more patients are coming onto the lists and having to wait longer.

And the number of surgical patients still on the waiting list over 12 months has only decreased only slightly in the past six months, from 611 to 584, according to the NTPF’s Patient Treatment Register.

Almost half of those waiting for operations for over a year are in four Dublin Hospitals — Beaumont, Temple Street, Our Lady’s Crumlin and Tallaght.

The NTPF organises private treatment for patients on public waiting lists for more than three months. Since its establishment in 2002, it has arranged treatment for almost 200,000 patients.

Patients are now waiting for surgery an average of 2.5 months, and 2.2 months for medical procedures.

However, the figures for November show that 8,894 adult and child patients were waiting between three and six months for surgical procedures, compared with 7,847 in April. A total of 2,513 patients were waiting three to six months for medical treatment, compared with 2,180 in April.

Last month, 5,664 patients were waiting for surgical treatment between six and 12 months, compared with 5,830 in April.

And 1,445 were waiting for medical treatment for six to 12 months in November, compared to 1,481 in April.

Meanwhile, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon has called for the NTPF to be abolished with the funding it receives channelled into public rather than private hospitals. Peter O’Rourke, who is based at Letterkenny General Hospital in Co Donegal, said public hospitals were having to reduce services to stay within a reducing budget, a situation that resulted in longer waiting times for patients. In the past few years his waiting list for surgery had increased from weeks to months and was now heading to years.

“It is nice to know that some of my patients may still be able to have their operations in luxurious private hospitals while I sit idle, still looking out the window at a now idle emergency department construction site,” he said. “Three years ago I was in the operating theatre one and a half days per week That has been reduced to one day every two weeks. Three years ago, a patient requiring a new hip would have received their operation within six weeks. Now it’s more than a year.”