400,000 wait to see hospital consultant

The number of people waiting for a first-time appointment to see a hospital consultant in an outpatient department is headed towards 400,000, including more than 12,000 people who are waiting more than four years.

The figures, contained in a HSE performance monitoring report, show that more than 25,000 patients have been awaiting an initial appointment with a consultant for between two and three years. An additional 65,571 have been waiting one to two years. When the two figures are combined, more than 90,000 people have been waiting in excess of one year for an initial appointment which shows the size of the challenge Health Minister James Reilly faces.

Dr Reilly has set himself a target whereby no patient waits more than one year for an outpatient appointment by the end of 2013.