'Scandal' that nearly 87,000 people over 75 on Irish hospital waiting lists

University Hospital Limerick: File Picture: Dan Linehan

Nearly 87,000 people over the age of 75 are currently on hospital waiting lists across the country, with almost 26,000 people aged over 75 waiting for more than year. 

Almost 18,000 of those over 75 waiting for either inpatient or outpatient appointments or procedures, have been waiting for at least 18 months. 

Of those waiting for 18 months or more, 2,520 are waiting to be seen in University Hospital Limerick, followed by 2,286 in Galway University Hospital, and 1,747 in Cork University Hospital. 

Sinn Féin's health spokesman David Cullinane said the figures are nothing short of "a scandal" and that these waiting times for older people are a "symptom of what is wrong across the health service where we have extremely high waiting times and numbers of people waiting." 

Mr Cullinane said that "these figures are getting worse month on month," and that we don't seem to be "putting in place the resources, capacity and strategies needed to actually reduce waiting times, and to give hospital management and staff the resources that they need." 

"It's obvious to most people that people over 75 need to be seen as quickly as we can get them seen," he added. 

Mr Cullinane stressed that these figures are just part of the overall state of the health service at present. 

"To get to a point where we have nearly 1.3m people on some form of health waiting list is a scandal in and of itself," he said. 

Overcrowding in hospitals continues to be a pressing issue for hospital staff, as over the month of May 8,680 patients were on trolleys in hospitals across Ireland.

Speaking recently about the current situation in University Hospital Limerick the Irish Nurses and Midwives assistant director of industrial relations Mary Fogarty said "nurses are working in conditions where it is impossible to give care to patients. They are burnt out, distressed and overwhelmed by the conditions they are working in."