Some 181,000 people over the age of 65 are on hospital waiting lists

While the Covid pandemic has worsened the situation, it was a problem long before, Dr Denis McCauley said. File picture: iStock

Almost 32,000 people over the age of 65 have been on a hospital waiting list for more than 18 months.

New figures also show nearly 20,000 children have been waiting for over a year and a half.

More than 181,000 people over the age of 65 are on hospital waiting lists, according to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF).

Of these, 2,600 have been waiting more than 18 months for inpatient care, and more than 29,000 for outpatient care.

Donegal GP Denis McCauley, chairman of the Irish Medical Organisation's GP committee, said the long wait times were demoralising for both patients and doctors.

"A large proportion of our time is taken up with patients coming trying to get themselves seen quicker," he said.

"They know they are on a waiting list, then come to us to see if we can do anything for them.

We have a number of sore and sick people who are getting patently very ill in front of our eyes who, unfortunately, are having to wait far too long."

Dr McCauley said the figures were not a surprise to GPs as it is an issue that has been ongoing for a number of years.

While the Covid pandemic has worsened the situation, it was a problem long before.

Decades of underfunding

The issue is representative of decades of underfunding of the hospital system, he said.

Meanwhile, almost 105,000 children under 18 are on a hospital waiting list.

More than 1,100 have been on an inpatient list for over 18 months and nearly 19,000 have been waiting over a year and a half for their first hospital outpatient appointment.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said waiting times had been affected by the Covid pandemic and continue to be.

He said €350m is being spent this year on reducing the waiting lists.

More than 76,000 people have been removed from hospital waiting lists this year, as a result of a validation process.

Almost 69,000 have been taken off outpatient lists and nearly 7,600 for inpatient or day-case care.

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The validation process is carried out by the NTPF and individual hospitals.

"The purpose of it is to establish a list to see who should be given priority on a waiting list and to remove people who should be showing up in outpatients, who haven't shown at least twice," said Bill Tormey, consultant in Beaumont Hospital.

"There are 40,000 no-shows so far in this calendar year in public hospitals."