More than 492,000 wait longer than Sláintecare maximum for hospital appointments

The maximum wait time for an inpatient/day case  procedure is 12 weeks under Sláintecare.

More than 492,000 people are on waiting lists which exceed the maximum target wait times of Sláintecare.

As part of a 2017 Oireachtas report on Sláintecare, the maximum wait time for an inpatient/day case (IPDC) procedure was 12 weeks, while outpatient appointments (OPD) were to face a wait of no more than 10 weeks.

Data published by the Health Service Executive (HSE) for April 2023 showed: 

• Additions to waiting lists in the year to date have been "higher than projected", according to the HSE;
• It put this trend down to a number of different factors, including post-pandemic pent-up demand;
• It also notes that this is not an issue that is exclusive to Ireland.

Earlier this week, the NHS confirmed that approximately 7.3m people in the UK are on lists awaiting an operation.

The HSE said that for the most recently available 12 months of data, there were 3.4m outpatient and 1.7m IPDC attendances. 

In addition to this care, the Irish hospital system also treated 1.6m patients during this same period in emergency care.

This is a 10% increase on pre-pandemic levels and the HSE claims it "reflects the ongoing pressure on hospitals from flu surges and increased emergency department attendances".

"Such pressures have had the expected knock-on impact on scheduled care in many of our hospitals in the first months of this year, which has resulted in some waiting lists temporarily increasing," it said in a statement.

"However, there are many examples of individual hospitals delivering significant improvements in waiting times despite such challenges."

University Hospital Limerick reduced the number of patients waiting more than 18 months for an outpatient appointment by 81%. Picture: Brendan Gleeson

According to the latest data, University Hospital Limerick has reduced the number of patients waiting more than 18 months for an outpatient appointment by 81%, with Our Lady's Hospital in Navan reducing its numbers by 66%.

However, on Friday morning intensive care nurses in UHL began strike action in the form of work-to-rule.

According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), nearly a quarter of the required nurses are not available on the roster in the hospital's ICU, yet 100% of the ICU beds remain open to admissions.

A total of 479 patients were on trolleys in hospitals around the country as of Friday morning.