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Fitness & Health

10th Mar 2019

Over 500,000 people on waiting list for hospital appointments

Carl Kinsella

Hospital waiting lists

More than half a million people.

The latest figures released by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) show that just over 540,000 Irish people are currently on waiting lists to see consultants through the healthcare system.

Over 99,000 of those people have been waiting for longer than 18 months.

The South/South West hospitals (including Cork University, Waterford, and Kerry General) had the highest number of people on waiting lists at 112,761.

Ireland East Hospital Group had a total of 104955, whereas Dubland Midlands came in at 85004. At least 47,000 of those on the waiting lists are children.

The Mater Hospital in Dublin had the highest figures for any single hospital, at 42,315.

The report can be accessed in full here.

Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Health Stephen Donnelly has pointed out that the total number of people waiting for an appointment population almost mirrors the entire population of Connacht, which is put at just over 550,000.

In a statement released today, Donnelly said: “This is clearly a crisis yet we see no initiative from Minister Harris. We are still waiting for an action plan on waiting lists for this year. The promised plan for outpatients in 2018 never materialised.

“There is no sense of urgency. When the numbers waiting for an appointment is set to surpass the population of a province surely it’s time for the Minister to take action.”

Topics:

healthcare