More than 1m people on were hospital waiting lists in June, figures show

Some 116,365 people were waiting for an in-patient appointment and 42,186 for a GI endoscopy appointment, which checks for signs of cancer among other illnesses. File picture

More than 1m people remained on hospital waiting lists in June despite calls for urgent action after the figure first crossed the milestone a month earlier, new figures show.

May marked the first time waiting list numbers surpassed 1m people, and the latest figures suggest the trend is continuing through the summer months.

National Treatment Purchase Fund data show 1.08m patients were waiting across hospital lists around the country at the end of June.

The largest group is again people waiting for their first hospital appointment with a consultant of any kind. This cohort rose by more than 4,000 since May to 673,754 in June.

Some 116,365 people were waiting for an in-patient appointment and 42,186 for a GI endoscopy appointment, which checks for signs of cancer among other illnesses.

Other patients have been given a date for their procedure.

Patients can now check waiting times for their local hospital or procedure through a dedicated section of the HSE website titled 'Check waiting times for your care'.

On Friday it showed a wait of 155 days for a first appointment with a dermatologist at Cork University Hospital and 162 days at University Hospital Waterford.

The wait for a first appointment at Croom Orthopedic Hospital is 246 days. 

Patients wait for 83 days for a general surgery appointment at Tipperary University Hospital in Clonmel and for 183 days for the same at University Hospital Kerry.

Responding to the figures, the Department of Health pointed to improvements in some areas since a multi-annual action plan system was put in place in 2021.

It said it has resulted in a 50% drop in the number of patients waiting over 12 months to be seen.

The average waiting time per patient has also improved by around 5.3 months. 

It said that measuring waiting times is a more important metric than looking at waiting list numbers when assessing how well services are doing.

The department acknowledged “higher demand and increased referrals” mean hospitals have faced “significantly increased levels of activity” which is impacting waiting times.

It also said demand for elective or planned operations is growing significantly; it claimed this showed that people are accessing the care they need in this area. 

Call for action 

Last month the Irish Hospital Consultants Association called on the Government to take urgent action as it estimated waiting list numbers had passed 1m people for the first time.

It raised concerns around cancellations and overcrowding, calling for funding to support tackling these delays.

Association vice president Anne Doherty said: “The Government needs to urgently increase public hospital capacity to treat the increasing number of patients on waiting lists.” 

She called for funding to cover improvements in “very obvious shortages of hospital beds, consultants, theatres, diagnostic, and other facilities”.