More than 100,000 people removed from hospital waiting lists without receiving treatment

The IHCA said 105,000 people were removed from lists via a  ‘validation’ process. Picture: Denis Minihane

More than 100,000 people were removed from Ireland’s hospital waiting lists in 2023 without ever receiving State treatment, according to the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA).

The consultants’ group said that roughly 105,000 people had been removed from the waiting lists via a process known as ‘validation’ carried out by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF), which compiles the listings.

This process sees those on a waiting list contacted to confirm whether or not they still require treatment and are in a position to access it if it becomes available. Often, those contacted will not require treatment as they will have arranged for care via a private vendor.

The latest figures for December show that more than 869,000 people were on some form of waiting list within the health system at the end of 2023, a slight reduction on the roughly 870,000 people on a list at the beginning of the year.

However, the IHCA said that reduction could not have been achieved were it not for the more than 100,000 people removed from a list without treatment across the year.

University Hospital Galway topped the list of 'validations' with 11,642.

The majority of those ‘validated’ off lists were in the West of the country, while the top six hospitals in terms of validations were: 

• University Hospital Galway with 11,642; 
• Tallaght University Hospital with 10,664; 
• The Mater Hospital with 8,565; 
• University Hospital Limerick with 7,419;
• Cork University Hospital with 6,063; 
• Crumlin Children’s Hospital with 5,128.

The Government’s action plan for 2023 set a target of reducing waiting lists for appointments and hospital treatment by 10%, or roughly 69,000. However, the main waiting lists only reduced by 3% over the year.

Commenting on the figures, president of the IHCA Professor Rob Landers said that the Government “needs to expedite” its own new €407m waiting-list action plan for 2024, saying that the failure to meet targets seen in 2023 “cannot be repeated in 2024”.

“The Government needs to... show more ambition in terms of delivering the additional hospital capacity that is required to meets its reduction targets,” he said.