New figures show that a total of 594,858 patients were waiting for a first hospital outpatient consultation as of the end of March of this year.
The latest public hospital waiting list data was published on Friday by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF). The agency was set up reduce waiting lists.
According to the data, as of the end of March, 85,059 patients were waiting for an appointment for their inpatient or day case treatment whilst 25,594 patients were waiting to receive an appointment for their GI endoscopy.
In addition, the NTPF publishes data on pre-admit, planned pocedure and suspension lists. The pre-admit data shows that 29,680 have been given a date for their inpatient/daycase or endoscopy procedure.
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Some 96,173 patients are recorded in the planned procedure category and 67,602 of these patients have indicative dates in the future or have an appointment. These are patients who have already had treatment and require further treatment at a future date and have been assigned indicative dates for treatment.
The NTPF says that these indicative dates are determined by a clinician.
“Treatment before these dates would not be appropriate. As more patients are initially seen and given a follow-up appointment for ongoing treatment or surveillance the number of patients on the planned procedure list increases.
A further 54,243 patients are classified as suspended. Patients who are temporarily unfit or unable to attend due to clinical or personal/social reasons are categorised as “suspension”. The suspension category is also used where patients are being treated through various Insourcing or outsourcing initiatives.”