19k people taken off hospital waiting lists
Letters to patients a part of ‘best practice’
NEARLY 19,000 patients were removed from hospital waiting lists without seeing a doctor since the beginning of the year.
Some 2,762 patients who had been waiting for procedures at Galway University Hospital were cut.
That was along with 1,626 who had been scheduled to receive treatment at Tallaght University Hospital.
A total of 18,705 individuals were removed during the first three months of 2024 as part of a validation process aimed at reducing waiting lists in hospitals throughout the country.
Each of the patients were sent a letter by the health service, asking them to confirm whether they still required the procedure for which they were waiting.
Where no response was received, a reminder was issued after two weeks and, after another two weeks, they were removed from the waiting list.
Last week, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly described the process as “an essential part of best practice” in relation to the management of hospital waiting lists.
He said: “Validation is a process whereby hospital administration contacts patients on waiting lists at pre-planned intervals to ensure that patients are ready, willing, suitable and available to attend a hospital appointment or if they wish to be removed from the waiting list.”
The practice has been managed by the National Centralised Validation Unit since September 2018, having previously been carried out separately by each indi
O’callaghan vidual hospital. Mr Donnelly said: “The establishment of a centralised function has facilitated the introduction of a standardised approach to validation of waiting lists across all hospitals and across inpatient day case and outpatient waiting lists.”
The latest figures provided to Fianna Fail TD Jim O’callaghan show 5,206 patients have been removed this year from waiting lists at hospitals in the Ireland East Hospital Group, which includes St. Vincent’s and Mater Misericordiae hospitals.
Saolta University Healthcare Group, which includes Galway University Hospital, had 5,053 patients removed from waiting lists at its constituent hospitals, including 720 at Letterkenny University Hospital and 673 at Sligo University Hospital.