Record-breaking 100,000 children now on hospital waiting lists

IHCA president Professor Alan Irvine outlined "the real possibility that they will suffer health and developmental issues that could easily have been reversed or mitigated against if only they were seen in time".

A record-breaking 100,089 children are now on hospital waiting lists nationally, latest figures released by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) show.

Furthermore, one in every 12 children in Ireland is now awaiting some form of treatment or assessment, one in three of whom are waiting over a year.

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has expressed its extreme concern, stating the shortage of consultants due to the difficulty in filling permanent posts and decade-long capacity deficits is the root cause of the “unacceptably long” child waiting lists.

The new data show that there are 86,400 children on outpatient waiting lists, an increase of more than 4,200 since this time last year.

Of this figure, paediatrics accounts for the highest amount of treatments and assessments at 17,241, an increase of 4,300 additional children from last year.

This is followed by ear, nose, and throat (16,351), dermatology (9,392), orthopaedics (7,253), and ophthalmology (5,572).

IHCA president Professor Alan Irvine said: “This trend is worrying and is resulting in thousands of children not getting the care they need in a timely way, and the real possibility that they will suffer health and developmental issues that could easily have been reversed or mitigated against if only they were seen in time."

Every single number is an individual child who could be experiencing pain, suffering, or the psychological distress at not knowing when they will be able to receive treatment. This is a wholly unacceptable situation.” 

Forty-four of all approved consultant posts in paediatrics were either absolutely vacant (23) or filled on a temporary or agency basis (21) at the beginning of March, states the IHCA.

“As consultants, we need and want sustainable solutions to help alleviate this distress and provide the care these children so desperately need,” said Mr Irvine.

However, we have a chronic recruitment and retention crisis that is not being addressed urgently enough.” 

He added that 838 approved consultant posts nationally “are either absolutely vacant or filled on a temporary or agency basis”.

“It is imperative these vacant consultant posts are filled if we are to effectively address the record hospital waiting lists," he said.

“To achieve that, the Government must appoint a replacement independent chair immediately with the representative organisations to kick-start the stalled hospital consultant contract talks and reengage with the profession in a genuine effort to arrive at a solution to these decade-long deficits in consultant staffing.” 

The IHCA has also stated that a further 8,360 children were waiting for CTs, MRIs, or ultrasounds at the CHI children’s hospitals at the end of 2021.