Over 776,000 people on NTPF waiting lists for care across our public hospitals

• 46,500 increase in total numbers on NTPF hospital waiting lists since January 2019
• Number of outpatients waiting to see a hospital consultant grows by 33,545 to 556,770 over last 12 months
• Orthopaedics, ENT, dermatology, ophthalmology, general surgery, urology and gynaecology specialties with largest numbers of patients waiting for hospital care

IHCA President Dr. Donal O’Hanlon: “Another year has passed by without any discernible improvement for patients in accessing our public hospitals. The figures continue to go in the wrong direction, which is unacceptable. 

“The next Government must now listen to what voters want and quickly move to address the overwhelming capacity deficits in our public hospitals.

“Increasing beds and filling the over 500 vacant permanent consultant posts must be urgently addressed to reduce waiting lists and provide timely quality care to patients”. 

Hospital consultants have expressed ‘extreme disappointment’, following the release of the latest hospital waiting times for January 2020, earlier today.

The NTPF waiting figures includes people on outpatient, inpatient and planned procedures lists seeking to access acute public hospitals. 

Today’s figures show that:

• 776,499 people in total are now listed on published NTPF waiting list for care across our acute public hospitals – this figure represents a 6% (+46,562) increase on January 2019;
• The number of people now waiting for an outpatient appointment (waiting to see a hospital consultant) stands at 556,770 – an increase of 33,545 over the last 12 months;
• The number of patients waiting for essential inpatient care exceeds 67,300; 
• The areas with the largest number of people wating to access hospital care include orthopaedics, ENT, dermatology, ophthalmology, general surgery, urology and gynaecology; and 
• A total of 52,734 children are now waiting for care at the three children’s hospitals which form part of the Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) hospital group.

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has warned the figures released today do not represent the full extent of adults and children waiting across Ireland, as they exclude a number of additional key patient groupings. These include children seeking care in other hospitals not part of the CHI group and adults and children awaiting diagnostics such as MRI or CAT scans, ultrasounds or X-rays. 

IHCA President Dr. Donal O’Hanlon commenting on today’s figures described them as “extremely disappointing”.

According to Dr. O’Hanlon: “Another year has passed by without any discernible improvement for patients in accessing our public hospitals. The figures continue to go in the wrong direction, which is unacceptable. 

“The lack of capacity in our public hospitals and the consultant recruitment and retention crisis are the key factors in the long wait times patients face.

“Last weekend voters gave their views on the current poor state of public hospital services - voting decisively for the immediate improvements in access and delivery of hospital care. 

“The next Government must now listen to what voters want and quickly move to address the overwhelming capacity deficits in our public hospitals. 

“Increasing beds and filling the over 500 vacant consultant posts must be urgently addressed to reduce the unacceptable waiting lists and provide timely quality care to patients”. 

ENDS. 
Contact: Amanda Glancy, PR360, 087 2273108 amanda@pr360.ie