More than 699,000 people on some form of hospital waiting list at end of April

There were more than 699,000 patients on some form of hospital waiting list at the end of last month, according to latest figures from the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF).

A total of 467,693 people were on active waiting lists for more than the 10- or 12-week targets set in the Sláintecare reform plan for the health service.

There were 86,827 patients waiting for an appointment for their inpatient or day case treatment, 23,620 for a gastrointestinal scope appointment, while 589,225 were awaiting a first hospital outpatient consultation.

In addition, the NTPF said pre-admit data showed 33,684 had been given a date for their inpatient/day case or endoscopy procedure.

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A further 100,676 patients were recorded in the planned procedure category, while 67,883 were classified as “suspended” as they were temporarily unfit or unable to attend due to clinical or personal/social reasons.

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has called on the Government to mark the seventh anniversary of the Sláintecare plan this month by “delivering long-promised additional acute hospital capacity in order to cut waiting lists”.

Prof Gabrielle Colleran, IHCA vice-president, said: “This month marks seven years since the government launched Sláintecare, yet as we go well past the two-thirds point of this 10-year plan we are faced with a health service, staff and patients who are yet to fully avail of the ambitious improvements promised, with only marginal improvements made to date.

“There has been a 55 per cent increase in people waiting on some form of hospital list since the plan was launched in May 2017 – with 901,915 adults and children across the country in need of care we fear things are moving in the wrong direction.”

Sinn Féin’s health spokesman David Cullinane said the Health Minister’s waiting list plans had “failed to make a dent in hospital waiting lists”.

“The truth is the Minister can publish as many plans as he wants but without adequate funding to increase capacity they are just meaningless words on paper,” he said. “The dangerous recruitment embargo is still in place, and the Government has not funded the 3,000 hospital and community beds that are needed. They have even failed to fund the 1,500 hospital beds which the Minister promised.”

The Department of Health said it was “normal” for waiting lists to increase in the earlier part of the year as elective care was constrained due to high levels of unscheduled care demand.

“Despite the significant challenges from the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, emergency department pressures, and other operational factors such as recruitment, our hospitals have delivered improvements which are making a real difference to patients,” it said.

“Many individual hospitals have delivered impressive reductions in both their waiting lists and waiting times. The Health Service Executive is currently working to replicate this positive performance across the entire hospital system.”

It added that since the Covid-19 pandemic “peaks” there had been a 25 per cent reduction in the number of people waiting longer than the Sláintecare targets.

The department also said that funding of €437 million has been allocated to address waiting lists in 2024.

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