Reilly pledge doomed as 8,125 children on hospital list

Health Minister James Reilly’s pledge to end year- long hospital appointment waits by the end of 2013 looks set to fail, after new figures revealed thousands of seriously ill children are still facing the mammoth delays.

Latest Department of Health statistics show that at the end of September, there were 8,125 children with heart, brain, kidney and other problems waiting one to four years for help at two of the country’s leading hospitals.

The rates, recorded at Temple Street and Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin at the end of September, are potentially putting the health of children at serious risk.

And, with just over three weeks to go before the end of the year, the update has also brought Dr Reilly’s claim that 12-month-plus outpatient appointment waits will be stamped out by the end of 2013 further into question.

According to the figures, published by the Department’s national treatment purchase fund, 31,072 children are currently on some form of outpatient waiting list at Crumlin and Temple Street. Of this figure — which is broken down evenly between both facilities — 4,706 are waiting more than a year for help at Crumlin, with 3,419 waiting more than a year at Temple Street.

This second set of figures, amounting to 8,125 cases, is set to breach Dr Reilly’s self-imposed 2013 deadline to ensure no one waits longer than one year for outpatient care. It includes:

- 5,925 waiting 1-2 years (3,351 at Crumlin and 2,574 at Temple Street)

- 2,014 waiting 2-3 years (1,326 and 688)

- 84 waiting 3-4 years (27 and 57)

- 102 waiting more than four years (2 and 100).

The figures include 1,255 children forced to wait between one and three years for heart-related outpatient appointments; 91 waiting one to three years for brain -related issues; and almost 1,000 whose vision-related concerns have been needlessly delayed.

The latest statistics, from September, show that more than 386,000 children and adults are on some form of waiting list in Ireland for outpatient hospital care.

The rate has increased from 374,000 in August but is down 18% since March.

Dr Reilly has previously said he is attempting to first address issues surrounding people waiting the longest amount of time, in a bid to ensure no avoidable medical concerns emerge. However, hospitals have warned that funding and staffing issues are making such ideals difficult to impose.