nearly 700,000 waiting to see consultants

NEARLY 700,000 patients were waiting for treatment or to be seen by a consultant yesterday as the national hospital waiting lists continue to rise.

The December figures increased by about 4,800 patients in the four-week period from November up to more than 689,700 patients. Meanwhile, over 500,800 people were waiting to be treated and seen at outpatient figures from the National Treatment Purchase Fund confirmed.

Fianna Fail health spokesman Billy Kelleher said: “Minister Simon Harris has clearly taken his eye off the ball as he attempts, and fails, to grapple with Emergency Department trolley crisis.

“Sadly the chaos we have seen in our Emergency Departments so far in 2017 means we are likely to see a further increase as we enter 2018.”

IT is a national scandal that over half a million people are now waiting for an outpatient appointment in a country with a population of little more than 4.5million.

Around 4,800 more patients were on waiting lists in December compared to the previous month and there is reason to believe the situation is going to get much worse.

So much for the promises made by the then Health Minister Leo Varadkar when he said no one would be waiting more than 18 months.

Since then his pledge has become as meaningless as the vow made by Enda Kenny to end the scandal of people in trolleys back in 2009.