Over 900,000 patients on hospital waiting lists

Donegal GP Ciarán Ó Fearraigh said the longer someone is waiting, the worse their condition becomes.

More than 903,000 people are on some form of hospital waiting list, according to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF).

It comes as a new hospital has officially opened in Spain which will treat patients on long public waiting lists in Ireland.

Nearly 624,000 are waiting for their first outpatient consultation, with inpatient lists increasing to 80,275.

A further 27,170 people are waiting to receive an appointment for a GI endoscopy.

Donegal GP Ciarán Ó Fearraigh said the longer someone is waiting, the worse their condition becomes.

"It is disappointing and we see that on the ground, as GPs, our patients are waiting for prolonged periods for outpatient treatment and, unfortunately, then that leads on to further referrals towards the emergency departments and a vicious cycle of delays for patients and lack of access," said Dr Ó Fearraigh.

The NTPF also published data on pre-admit, planned procedure, and suspension lists. The pre-admit data shows that 26,787 people have been given a date for their inpatient/day case or endoscopy procedure.

Some 92,439 patients are recorded in the planned procedure category, of whom 63,992 have indicative dates in the future or have an appointment. These are patients who have already had treatment and require further at a future date.

Some 52,867 patients are classified as suspended, which are patients who are temporarily unfit or unable to attend due to clinical or personal/social reasons.

Missed targets 

There were 11,300 people added to the three main waiting lists in the first six months of this year, according to the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA).

The association said the Government reduction target of 77,500 has been badly missed and the €350m Waiting List Action Plan is unlikely to meet the target of reducing lists by 132,000 by the end of 2022.

"The NTPF figures released today confirm our fears that without addressing the very obvious shortages of Consultants, hospital beds, theatres, diagnostic and other facilities the Government will not address the core problems facing our public hospitals," said IHCA President Professor Alan Irvine.

Consultants have raised concerns that outpatient waiting lists will need to decrease by an average of 22,700 per month between now and the end of the year if the target of reducing the number awaiting an outpatient appointment to 487,000 is to be achieved.

Vacant consultant posts 

Today's NTPF data comes at a time when HSE figures revealed the number of approved consultant posts that are vacant or filled on a temporary, locum or agency basis has reached an all-time high.

As of May 3, there are 473 permanent consultant posts vacant with six others listed as unknown. Another 342 permanent posts are filled temporarily and 61 are filled on an agency basis.

The IHCA has renewed its call on the Government to end the pay discrimination introduced in 2012 against consultants contracted after that date.

"The fact that so many posts cannot be filled as needed is an unequivocal signal to Government and Health Service Management that the current conditions in our public hospitals do not create an environment in which skilled medical and surgical specialists want to work and which is driving our trained specialists abroad to pursue their careers," said Prof Irvine.