Department of Health and hospital doctors at odds over growing waiting lists 

Data for August shows while around 44,000 people were treated in hospitals, the number added to the waiting lists shot up by almost 72,000 more than was expected.

A row has broken out between the Department of Health and hospital doctors over mounting treatment waiting lists, with consultants calling for an urgent funding injection to build hospitals.

Data for August shows while around 44,000 people were treated in hospitals, the number added to the waiting lists shot up by almost 72,000 more than was expected.

The HSE has blamed “post-pandemic pent-up demand” for the unexpectedly high number of new patients, as well as predicted pressures. 

The three main waiting lists now come to 708,399 people, according to data published by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF).

As of the end of last month, 83,292 patients are waiting for inpatient or day-case treatment. A further 24,288 patients are waiting to receive an appointment for gastrointestinal endoscopy, which can identify cancers, ulcers, and other conditions.

However, dwarfing this, 600,819 patients are waiting for a first hospital outpatient consultation.

The Department of Health said the total number removed from those three active waiting lists was around 44,000 or 4.8%.

“[This] continues ahead of target, while additions to waiting lists in the same period were c.71.7k (c.7.8%) higher than projected,” it said.

It said the rising number of patients waiting comes in parallel with an 11% rise in emergency care.

'Knock-on impact'

“Such pressures have had the expected knock-on impact on scheduled care in many of our hospitals in the first half of this year, which has resulted in some waiting lists temporarily increasing,” said the department.

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) questioned the claim that treatment levels are ahead of target, saying the overall context has to be taken into account.

“The €443m Action Plan set a target to reduce waiting lists for outpatient appointments and inpatient and day case treatment by 10% (-69,000) by the end of the year, compared with the number waiting at the start of 2023,” it said.

However, eight months into 2023 and instead of an expected reduction of around 45,500 people, the latest NTPF figures confirm that almost 18,200 additional people have in fact been added to these three main waiting lists — a 63,700 shortfall.” 

It welcomed updates on Sláintecare targets and "welcome any small gains in these wait times” but said overall since 2017 the situation has “significantly deteriorated”. 

“In fact, the number of people on NTPF waiting lists has increased by over 313,000 (+54%) since Sláintecare [was published in 2017].” 

The IHCA called on the Government to commit an estimated €4bn in capital funding required for promised health projects. These include elective hospitals in Cork and Galway. 

It also said that "a record 933 permanent consultant posts are vacant or filled on a temporary basis" and demanded this to be addressed.