Taskforce is needed to tackle chronic public patient wait times, say advocates 

The Irish Patients’ Association tracked the average wait times to both see a consultant and then have surgery in 41 hospitals around Ireland. Stock picture

Patient advocates have called for a taskforce to tackle chronic public patient wait times as figures show thousands of people are waiting up to two years to see a consultant and have surgery.

Figures released by the Irish Patients’ Association (IPA) for July show that patients in Letterkenny, Cork, Galway, Sligo, and Limerick, face the longest waits, with the hospitals in those areas also seeing emergency department overcrowding in the past year.

IPA spokesman Stephen McMahon said it should not just be about the numbers on the waiting list — it must also be about the length of time people are waiting. “It is a better indicator for the patient’s experience,” he said. 

The longer you wait, the more at risk you are from fatal harm or injury due to lack of timely access. 

The IPA is publishing a league table on Monday showing the average wait times to both see a consultant and then get surgery in 41 hospitals around the country.

The waiting times are then combined to provide “average weighted times”.

The figures shows that while the national average weighted time stands at 19.1 months, huge disparities emerge when individual hospitals are analysed.

The data shows the longest wait times are at:

• Letterkenny University Hospital, where there is an 11.7-month wait time to see a consultant and a 9.5-month wait for surgery — a 21.2-month weighted average;
• Midlands Regional Hospital in Mullingar, which has a 19.5-month weighted average;
• Cork University Hospital, which has a 19.4-month weighted average, with 33,367 patients waiting 11.1 months to see a consultant, and 1,532 waiting 5.6 months for surgery;
• Galway University Hospital, with an 18.1-month weighted average;
• The Mercy University Hospital in Cork, which has an 18-month weighted average.

By contrast, Cork’s South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital and Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown both have a 7.6-month weighted average waiting time.

Mr McMahon said the analysis highlights the inequalities for public patients at many hospitals and again raises questions about why some hospitals do better in patient flow than others.

“Hard targets must also be set for reducing the length of time for public patients to access care,” he said.

“Acceptance that it will take years to clear these legacy lists is merely a continuation of a culture of acceptance that is unacceptable.

Such apartheid is not going unseen or unnoticed by the almost one million public patients or their families who are experiencing this first-hand. 

The IPA has now urged consultants to remind their public patients who are facing long waits that they can access care quicker through the EU Cross-Border directive.

It has also called on the department of health to establish a taskforce, with an independent chairperson, to oversee planned service delivery for public patients.