Waiting list for endoscopy test climbs by more than 4,000 in five months despite €24m fund

The figures from the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) show 32,839 people waiting for GI endoscopies in July. 

More than 4,000 additional people are now waiting for vital endoscopy tests which can identify disease, including cancer, than in March, new hospital data shows.

The rise comes despite funding of €24m given to widen use of these scopes in the latest waiting list action plan, published in February.

The figures from the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) show 32,839 people waiting for GI endoscopies in July. 

This waiting list has grown every month since March when 28,663 were waiting, having shown signs of decreasing in January and February.

While the majority waiting in July have waited less than six months, some 132 adults have waited longer than 18 months, 620 for between 12 and 19 months and 4,244 people have waited for between six months and one year so far.

The government’s Slaintecare target waiting time for these scopes is just 5.5 months.

The endoscopy list also includes 368 children with nine of them waiting longer than 18 months to be seen and 30 waiting between 12 and 18 months. A further 63 have been waiting between six and 12 months with the remaining 267 waiting less than six months.

This year’s waiting list action plan included €24m in funding to the NTPF to offer extra endoscopy care. Patients waiting the longest were to be reached under this.

A key target is to have 50% of patients waiting less than 12 weeks for a GI Scope appointment by the end of this year. They also aim to have no-one waiting longer than four weeks for an urgent colonoscopy.

The HSE was also funded to boost staffing in this area.

The July waiting list figures also show 100,019 waiting to get an appointment for in-patient or day-care work, up from 97,040 waiting in March and 95,983 waiting in February.

Some 614,470 were waiting for their first out-patient appointment with a consultant last month, usually having been referred in by their GP.

This is also up from 581,736 waiting in March - a leap of over 32,000 - and an increase on February’s figures – the month the waiting list plan was published.

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The plan’s funding for this year came to €430m including €190m for the HSE and €230m for the NTPF.

It also aims to have 90% of outpatients waiting less than 12 months for their first appointment by the end of the year. In July for adults and children together this stood at 83%, the NTPF data shows, with the remainder waiting longer than that.

In February there were fewer people but the same proportion - 83% - had waited less than 12 months to be seen.

The Department of Health said on Friday: "There has been a 1% reduction in the total number of patients waiting over 12 months since this time last year, and a corresponding reduction of 10% in the number waiting over 18 months."