‘Shocking increase’ in hospital waiting lists as over 880,000 wait for care - Hospital Consultants

There has been a “shocking increase” in the number of people on hospital lists as 881,621 are currently waiting on some form of care, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has said.

This is an increase of 42,946 since the beginning of 2021, the IHCA said.

Capacity deficits and the pandemic have resulted in a record 628,756 people now on the outpatient waiting list - an increase of over 66,000 (12pc) in the past year.

“The latest waiting list figures are likely to be an underestimation of the true unmet demand for treatment as they do not yet include all those who have had their care disrupted or have postponed seeking care,” the IHCA said.

The IHCA have classified the lack of consultant recruitment as an “ongoing Government failure” which “leaves almost a million waiting for care”.

The group has said that acute hospital figures are at a tipping point as non-Covid care waiting lists “skyrocket”.

The IHCA are calling for Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to address the “root cause of 728 vacant consultant posts and subsequent record waiting lists”.

The IHCA claim that a lack of consultant recruitment has contributed to some hospitals experiencing a 100pc increase in inpatient waiting lists in the last year alone.

“Last October, the IHCA welcomed the unambiguous commitment by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly to address the root causes of Ireland’s chronic consultant recruitment and retention crisis. While the Minister has worked to reduce Covid sickness and death since October, he and his officials must look to address the unacceptable delays in providing care to non-Covid patients and ever-growing waiting lists,” IHCA President Prof Alan Irvine said.

The latest National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) figures released today show the hospitals experiencing the highest increases in outpatient waiting lists over the past year include: Cork University Maternity Hospital (81pc); Mayo University Hospital (46pc); St Michael’s, Dun Laoghaire (40pc) and Wexford General Hospital (33pc).

Professor Alan Irvine said: “Our acute hospital figures are at a tipping point. Covid restrictions and the vaccine are striving to reduce daily case numbers; meanwhile non-Covid care waiting lists are dangerously increasing.

In response the HSE said there was a “significant reduction in planned scheduled care activity” across acute hospital services due to the impact of Covid-19.

As services adapted to the “new workflows and processes associated with providing care within a Covid-19 environment”, activity began to return to “previous levels”.

“In late 2020 the number of outpatient appointments was more aligned with 2019 volumes and included a significant number of virtual appointments,” a HSE spokeswoman said.

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