800,000 on hospital waiting lists

MORE than 800,000 people are now on hospital waiting lists, a rise of nearly 48,000 since the start of the year.

The stark new figures by the National Treatment Purchase Fund show that 584,399 outpatients nationally are waiting to be seen by a consultant – an increase of 8,536 on last month and 30,965 higher than the start of the year.

A further 84,223 are also waiting for inpatient/day-case treatment, a fall of 2,723 over the last month.

However, there are an additional 17,518 patients on the surgery list since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March.

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association has claimed that hospital waiting lists could be missing thousands of other people who delayed hospital assessment or referral because of Covid-19 risk fears.