Record 523,225 public patients are now waiting to see hospital specialists
HOSPITAL waiting lists are on the rise again with a record 523,225 public patients – more than one in 10 of the population – now in the queue to see a specialist.
The number of patients waiting for surgery also rose last month to 72,027, up from 70,804 in December.
Overall, 729,937 patients are facing 2019 on some form of hospital waiting list, many of them desperate for treatment.
The figures from the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) also show a rise in the numbers waiting for an endoscopy – up to 19,848 compared to 18,847 in December.
The nurses strike at the end of January resulted in the cancellation of clinics and surgery, but this does not account for the full underlying trend.
Hospitals were forced to severely curtail surgeries last month in a bid to keep the trolley crisis under some form of control, but huge numbers continued to wait for a bed most days.
In addition, the NTPF publishes data on pre-admit, planned procedure and suspension lists. The preadmit data shows 27,310 have been given a date for their inpatient and daycare or endoscopy procedure.
Some 75,175 patients are recorded in the planned procedure category, and 62,044 of these patients have indicative dates in the future or have an appointment.
These are patients who have already had treatment and need to be seen again.
A total of 12,452 patients are classified as suspended.
“Almost 11pc of the population are waiting for an outpatient consultation, and a huge number of them are waiting a very significant period for one,” said Fianna Fáil health spokesperson Stephen Donnelly.
He said 158,413 are waiting more than a year, with 96,243
waiting on a list longer than 18 months. “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.”
Ireland’s three children’s hospitals have 11,825 children waiting more than a year and a half for appointments – “figures that are simply appalling”.
Despite pledges in 2018, Health Minister Simon Harris never published an outpatient action plan, he warned.