Shortage of consultants blamed as 907,000 patients on waiting lists  

The number of patients waiting more than 18 months for their first outpatient appointment has risen since August to stand at 120,443, including 16,831 children. Stock picture

There are now 907,000 people on hospital waiting lists, including more than 85,000 children waiting for their first hospital appointment despite efforts to reduce waiting times.

The number waiting more than 18 months for their first appointment, as an outpatient, has risen since August to stand at 120,443 — this figure includes 16,831 children.

Overall, there are 625,673 people waiting for initial appointments. This has dropped since August by almost 4,000 overall.

These people were assessed, usually by a GP, as having a condition serious enough to need further examination in a hospital, but are still waiting.

🚨There has been more than a 100-fold increase in the number of patients waiting longer than a year for hospital treatment.
The no of permanent Consultant posts that are not filled as needed has increased exponentially to over 900 - 22% of the total approved posts. #CareCantWait pic.twitter.com/zHxkJDAPud

— IHCA (@IHCA_IE) October 14, 2022

In-patient waiting lists — people who need an operation requiring a stay in hospital — have risen since August, now at 79,363, up from 79,280. Among them are 971 children waiting longer than 18 months.

Hospital consultants have said that long waits are leading to poorer results for patients.

Responding to the latest figures, Irish Hospital Consultants Association president Professor Robert Landers linked these numbers to a crisis in doctor recruitment, with more than one in five roles not permanently filled at present.

IHCA president Professor Robert Landers said patients are denied timely hospital treatment due to the increasing shortage of hospital consultants. File picture: ihca.ie

“Irish patients have suffered a decade of despair because they are continually denied the timely hospital treatment that they need due to the increasing shortage of hospital consultants,” he said.

A salary reduction for newly-hired consultants, imposed in 2012, has led to many doctors emigrating, he said.

Since then, the number of people on outpatients lists have grown by 240,000 and in-patient lists by almost 30,000, the association found.