The number of patients waiting more than 12 months for surgery has fallen by 60 per cent, but many patients are still waiting for months for critical tests for cancer and for minor heart procedures, according to new figures.
Some 1,846 patients are now on waiting lists for more than 12 months, down from 4,594 in October 2007.
Of the 1,800 patients, some 48 per cent of them are on lists in the north west, west and mid-west areas.
Of the 48 per cent, more than four out of 10 are waiting in three hospitals - Letterkenny General, Sligo General and the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick.
Overall, 15,086 patients are waiting longer than three months for surgery nationwide across 44 public hospitals, a decrease of 15 per cent compared to this time last year.
In all, more than half (54 per cent) of these 15,000 patients could be treated as surgical day cases.
On average, public patients are now waiting 2.9 months for their operations, the latest report from the National Treatement Purchase Fund (NTPF) said.
Some 60 per cent of those waiting longer than 12 months for a surgical procedure are on waiting lists at Letterkenny General Hospital, Sligo General Hospital, Temple Street Hospital, Limerick Regional Hospital and Cork University Hospital.
A total of 3,620 patients are currently waiting over three months for diagnostic scopes, including, in more than half of these cases, a colonoscopy, the report said.
“While this total represents a reduction of one-third since this time last year, the NTPF has repeatedly said it has the resources and capacity to deal with many of these cases very quickly,” it said.
A total of 34 per cent of these patients are waiting for scopes in just two hospitals - Letterkenny General Hospital (18 per cent) and Tallaght Hospital (16 per cent).
NTPF chief executive Pat O’Byrne said arranging treatment for those public patients waiting longest for their operations had been the organisation’s top priority in 2008, but he said some patients were still waiting "needlessly" for surgery.
“As the latest Patient Treatment Register figures reveal, significant inroads have been made into these longest waiters, cutting the numbers waiting by almost two thirds. The average national waiting time for all specialties is now 2.9 months, which is the lowest figure ever reported by the PTR."
Since 2002, the fund has arranged treatment for more than 130,000 public patients and is on target to arrange treatment for a total of 37,000 patients in 2008, Mr O’Byrne added.
Mr O'Byrne said a lot of good work had been done by the vast majority of hospitals and this was reflected in the shortening of patient waiting times and by the fall in the numbers of longest waiting patients.
“The fund has the resources to arrange treatment for these patients and I urge the hospitals in these regions to refer their longest waiting patients so we can arrange their treatment.”
Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly said patient waiting lists continued to be a "scandal" and that they did not take account of the thousands of people waiting for outpatient appointment
"Almost 20,000 patients are still waiting over three months for treatment. Over 50 per cent of these are waiting over six months. The report does not count those who are waiting less than three months but, from past experience, the total number of patients on waiting lists is probably double the figure published today."
Labour Party health spokeswoman Jan O’Sullivan said over 3,600 patients were waiting three months and more for diagnostic tests and that over half of these are waiting for a colonoscopy.
She urged the introduction of a universal health insurance to address the "two-tier" system.
The Irish Cancer Society said more and extended clinics in hospitals could reduce waiting times for colonoscopies, which were vital for the detection of bowel cancer. Over 900 people in Ireland die from the disease every year.
The NTPF recently said it had the budget, scope and capacity to provide these tests within a matter of weeks once a patient was referred to it.
The Irish Patients Association welcomed the drop in 12-month waiting times and the reduction in the number of patients on hospital surgery lists.
IPA chairman Stephen McMahon asked all hospitals that had patients waiting more than 12 months to “make every effort to ensure that they have an opportunity to be treated by the NTPF”.
But he noted that 531 public patients had waited an average of three months for a coronary angiogram. “This is even longer at hospitals such as Tallaght Hospital with a waiting list averaging five months and University Hospital Galway three months.”
HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm said the reduction in the numbers of people waiting over 12 months for surgery reflected the commitment of staff to improving services and he expected further progress next year.
Prof Drumm said a series of major initiatives was underway to reduce waiting times further during the next 12 months.
Hospitals with waiting times of over 12 months had been instructed to refer patients to the NTPF for treatment and they were following this instruction, he said.
"As soon as a patient is waiting over three months to undergo colonoscopy procedures, their hospital has been instructed to refer the patient immediately to the NTPF for treatment."
The NTPF was set up by the Government in 2002 to tackle long-term hospital waiting lists. It pays for public patients to have their operations by buying up spare capacity in private hospitals here and abroad.