Over 9,000 patients are waiting more than a year for treatment on hospital waiting lists, according to the latest figures published by the Department of Health yesterday, writes Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent.
These figures mean a primary goal of the National Health Strategy that no adult would have to wait more than 12 months, or no child more than six months, on a hospital waiting list by the end of 2002 has been missed again at the end of 2003.
Some 615 children are waiting more than 12 months for treatment and more than 200 have been waiting for more than 24 months, according to the figures. They also show 5,279 adults have been waiting over a year and 3,216 adults over two years on hospital waiting lists.
However, the latest data indicate the overall numbers on waiting lists fell in the third quarter, the latest period for which figures are available. At the end of September, there were 27,212 patients on waiting lists, a fall of 918 patients since June.
When compared with September last year, the fall is even more marked, down by 1,962 patients.
Opposition parties, however, last night claimed the fall was insignificant. Labour's health spokeswoman, Ms Liz McManus, said the figures showed there was no hope of the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, fulfilling an election promise to eliminate waiting lists entirely within two years.
Most patients are waiting in the eastern region and it is here some of the longest lists at individual hospitals are found. The largest list is at St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin, which has 2,408 patients waiting, followed by Beaumont Hospital with 2,227 patients waiting. More than 1,000 patients are waiting to be admitted to the Mater and Tallaght.
It is also at these hospitals that people are waiting longest. There are 1,081 patients waiting over a year for admission to Beaumont, 1,186 to St Vincent's and 934 to the Mater.
The specialities with particularly long waiting times include orthopaedics at Tallaght, neurosurgery at Beaumont, the pain speciality at St Vincent's and ENT (ear, nose and throat) at the Mater.
There are no people waiting lengthy periods for treatment at St James's Hospital, where the National Treatment Purchase Fund has been used to buy private treatment for public patients waiting a considerable period for treatment.
The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, said there was no need for most adults or children to have to wait for admission to hospital for routine treatment. He said the fund had already treated over 9,300 patients and he urged people on waiting lists to contact it directly to find out if they qualified for treatment.
Outside Dublin, several health boards have used the fund to cut the numbers of long waiters on their lists. The Midland Health Board now has just eight patients waiting more than a year for admission and the Mid Western Health Board has 47.
The waiting lists for children show a slight increase between June and September. The majority of the 1,648 children on lists are waiting to be seen at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Temple Street Children's Hospital or Waterford Regional Hospital. Most are waiting to see ENT specialists.
There were 9,907 adults and 974 children on day case waiting lists at the end of September, a drop of 591 on the June figure.
Again the largest lists were at some of the big Dublin hospitals such as the Mater and Beaumont, which had 1,693 and 1,182 patients on their respective day-case waiting lists. However, the numbers on the day-case waiting lists at these hospitals dropped since June.
While there were some large percentage increases in day-case waiting lists at hospitals outside Dublin, these were based on small figures. For example, the day-case list at Portlaoise General Hospital jumped by 151 per cent from 33 in June to 83 in September.