VITAL FIGURES on outpatient waiting lists for hospital consultants are expected be published from April, the Department of Health has said.
The figures will be published on a weekly basis and will show how many people are waiting to see specialists after being referred by their GPs and for how long.
In the past, the Health Service Executive has refused to publish figures on people waiting for out-patient appointments at public hospitals, estimated at 200,000. But it had been publishing statistics on the HealthStat section of its website indicating how long on average patients had to wait.
Publication of that data ceased last year after the HSE stopped collecting it from hospitals.
Access to outpatient waiting list information is vital for GPs and healthcare workers so they can assess how quickly their patients are likely to be seen when they are referred to a particular hospital.
Figures released to The Irish Times on Dublin’s five major voluntary hospitals last year, showed 60,000 people were waiting, some for 2½ years, to see specialists. At the capital’s three children’s hospitals, 24,000 were waiting.
The Department of Health said the Special Delivery Unit, set up by Minister for Health James Reilly last year to help unblock access to acute hospital services, is developing a system to provide weekly data.
From April, the unit will report on outpatient department waiting times in the same way they currently publish data on inpatient and day case surgery, the department said. Dr John Ball, spokesman for the Irish College of General Practitioners, said they would welcome the publication of outpatient waiting list data.
