More hospital consultants needed to address record waiting lists - IHCA

The body, which represents around 3,000 hospital doctors, warned that patients are at risk unless more than 700 vacant consultant posts are filled on a permanent basis. File Picture

More hospital doctors are needed to address record waiting lists which have increased by 10% since the start of the year, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has said.

The body, which represents around 3,000 hospital doctors, warned that patients are at risk unless more than 700 vacant consultant posts are filled on a permanent basis.

The IHCA was commenting in the wake of the latest waiting list figures published by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF), which show that more than 72,000 patients are waiting for inpatient or daycase treatment and a further 612,000 patients are waiting for a first hospital outpatient appointment.

The number of patients waiting for an appointment has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced the temporary suspension of services earlier this year.

While the November NTPF figures show some stabilisation in waiting list numbers the IHCA highlighted significant growth across a range of adult and child specialities over the course of the year.

The number of adults waiting for a general surgery outpatient appointment grew by 29% or 9,000 this year and the number of children waiting for a surgery outpatient appointment doubled since the start of the year to 2,100 by November.

The number of patients waiting for inpatient or daycase treatment also increased by 25% or 2,400 since the start of the year.

IHCA President Professor Alan Irvine called on Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to engage with the association to agree “practical plans” to address the “unacceptable” waiting lists and end the consultant recruitment and retention crisis.

The waiting list figures, Professor Irvine said, highlighted the impact of hospital consultant shortages and capacity constraints on patients.

“Each statistic represents a person waiting for the care they so desperately need, while potentially deteriorating clinically or in pain. Reducing these surgical waiting times will result in better outcomes for patients and better use of scarce hospital capacity,” he said.

“The continued failure of the Government since 2012 to address the hospital consultant recruitment and retention crisis and other capacity deficits is the root cause of the record 844,757 people now on some form of NTPF waiting list, an increase of 75,993 (10%) since the start of the year,” he added.

Professor Irvine called for the inequity associated with the 2012 hospital consultant contract to be addressed and noted that the number of consultants will have to increase by more than half to address current shortfalls and meet rising patient demand by 2028.

“While government has committed record funding levels for health in 2021, until this money is channelled effectively and speedily to where it will make a difference for patients, we will continue to see record waiting lists,” he said.