Outpatient list at record high

THE number of patients on an outpatient waiting list has hit a record high of 523,200. Figures for January show the numbers waiting increased by 7,000, from 516,100 at the end of December.

It compares to a low of 375,400 recorded at the end of December 2015.

The increase follows the winter trolley crisis and the nurses’ strike on the last day of January. The figures include 46,300 youngsters waiting for an appointment in the country’s three children’s hospitals. The statistics from the National Treatment Purchase Fund also showed the number of people waiting for an inpatient or day-case hospital procedure had increased by almost 2,000 to 72,000 at the end of January.

Responding to the figures, Health Minister Simon Harris said: ‘While I note that the numbers waiting for an inpatient/day case hospital procedure increased last month, this is a period which coincides with the HSE managing the ED pressures over the peak winter period. Undoubtedly these figures also reflect some of the impact arising from the INMO industrial action.’

Fianna Fáil health spokesman Stephen Donnelly said: ‘It is four years since Leo Varadkar, as health minister, set a target that no-one would wait more than 18 months and we are further away than ever from reaching that target.’