Hospital waiting lists ‘are now a crisis’

RECORD hospital waiting list numbers, which exceeded 686,000 last month, should be declared a crisis, the Irish Patients Association (IPA) has said.

Some 686,997 people are on some form of hospital waiting list, according to figures published yesterday by the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

The data for July amounts to an increase of 9,500 from the previous month. The highest figures were recorded in Galway University Hospital, where 50,500 await treatment – 38,501 of whom are outpatients.

Long lists are also recorded at the Mater Hospital and University Hospital Waterford. The majority of these patients are waiting to see a consultant.

Reacting to the figures yesterday, Stephen McMahon of the IPA said: ‘This is a crisis and it needs to be recognised and declared as such by the Government.’

Mr McMahon encouraged patients to consider treatment options abroad if their waiting time had been particularly long.

The HSE said yesterday the key issue was waiting times, not numbers. It pointed out that 33% of in-patients are waiting less than three months, more than half are waiting less than six months and 93% are waiting less than 18 months. The HSE said action plans are effectively reducing waiting numbers: ‘The Outpatient Waiting List Action Plan focuses on reducing the number of patients who will be waiting 15 months or more for outpatient appointments by the end of October 2017.

‘The Plan aims to remove over 95,000 patients from the Outpatient Waiting List. By the end of July; 63,700 patients have come off the waiting list under this plan.’

A spokesman for the Health Minister described the figures as ‘disappointing’ and said there would be a special meeting on waiting lists next week between the NTPF, the HSE and the Department of Health.