Numbers of patients left worrying have spiralled under this Government

IRELAND’S grey army of older people is not the only group being blamed for our struggling hospitals. When it comes to the punishing delays, of years in some cases, that children must endure before seeing a specialist or having surgery the baby boom is one reason that is invoked.

When the veritable explosion of young patients is combined with a shortage of doctors, nurses and theatres the results are massive hospital waiting lists.

The numbers of children facing delays of at last 18 months for outpatient care are now around 20 times higher than they were just two years ago.

The figure of 10,329 children waiting more than 18 months to see a specialist in 2018 compares to just 505 when this Government took office.

What has happened and why are the queues so seemingly out of control?

Hospitals will point to our child population and the fact Ireland still has one of the highest birth rates in the EU.

The baby boom era is blamed for the queues being out of control

This is despite the fact we are long past the baby boom era that peaked in 2008.

Ireland has the highest percentage of children in the EU, making up over a quarter of our population.

This compares to an EU average of 18.8pc.

A quarter of our population are children between 0-17 years.

All of these statistics are by way of background but they are little consolation to parents of children who are being put at risk for want of a timely assessment by a specialist.

Some specialists remain difficult to recruit despite the post being sanctioned.

But in other cases the necessary resources to hire a doctor have not been released.

Efforts are also being made to pay for specialist appointments under the National Treatment Purchase Fund, but while all are welcome it is not making any major inroads.

And the demands just continue to grow with more children referred to clinics all the time.

Parents are having to dig into what finances they have to pay for private appointments or take out a loan.

But this is simply beyond many families who must wait and worry.