170,000 waiting over six months to see consultants

Almost 170,000 people are waiting for a consultant appointment, with 316 left in limbo for over four years.

According figures released by the HSE and detailed by a new recording system, 167,825 people have been waiting between six months and four years from the date of GP referral until they were first seen by a consultant for the range of treatments at 30 public hospitals across the country.

This is due main to lack of staff, large catchment areas and consultants spending significant amounts of time treating private patients.

The facilities with the worst records of patients waiting more than a year include:

* Tallaght Hospital — 18,785;

* Waterford Regional — 15,117;

* Beaumont Hospital — 13,831;

* Cork University Hospital — 12,387.

The only hospital in the country with nobody waiting longer than six months for an outpatient appointment is St James’s Hospital in Dublin.

However, facilities such as University Hospital Galway, the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick, and St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin — all of which are believed to have significant outpatient appointment wait lists — have to date failed to provide the HSE with figures.

As a result, the 167,825 total is likely to be considerably higher.

A breakdown of the figures shows that almost 60,000 have been on outpatient waiting lists for six months, 6,830 for one to two years, 2,146 for two to three years, and 837 three to four years.

And 316 people have been waiting since before 2008 for the outpatient consultant appointment.

In 2009, the HSE told the Comptroller and Auditor General that as many as 175,000 people were on outpatient lists.

The figures emerged after it was revealed earlier this week that a significant number of consultants are still spending large amounts of time treating private patients.

According to VHI, almost 3,000 consultants on its books received an average of €86,000 each last year for treating private patients, with 30 of the senior doctors making over €500,000 through the treatments.

While overall payments are down 16% since 2009, when the average payment per consultant was €102,800, the major insurer still paid out a total of €258m to consultants and locum consultants during 2011.

Half of these earned less than €50,000 and 71% earned less than €100,000.

The costs do not include consultants who choose contracts which mean they only treat public patients.