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THERE ARE NOW 556,770 people waiting for their first hospital outpatient consultation, according to figures from the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF).
The number of outpatients waiting to see a hospital consultant has grown by 33,545 in the past year, reaching 556,770 in January 2020.
The figures have grown by more than 3,000 people since the figures for the end of 2019 were released.
The largest number of patients waiting for hospital care are in
President of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association Donal O’Hanlon said the rise in figures 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,” O’Hanlon said in a statement.
“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.”
More than 67,300 people are waiting for inpatient care and 52,734 children are now waiting for care at the three children’s hospitals in the country.
The IHCA said there are additional hidden patients waiting for diagnostics such as MRIs, CT scans and ultrasounds, so they believe the actual figures are much higher.
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Jez,enda Kenny said in 2011 he would sort it out,10 years later and FG have broken the record in waiting lists, and Leo tells us he is proud of FG.s achievements.
@@mdmak33: dont forget, Simon Harris says he is proud of his record as health minister
@@mdmak33:
If people working in the HSE (medical and otherwise) don’t change from within, no about of money/tax will resolve its problems.
Throwing good money after bad …. that’s the only idea on offer it seems.
@iohanx: Just curious, but what exactly do you expect them to do? I mean given that our hospitals are so full we’re putting extra beds in wards, clinics are stretched to capacity etc?
@Arch Angel:
Continuous Improvement. Everyone has a stake in it. Digitization for a start, and no complaints about people having to up-skill or slightly change their roles.
@iohanx: Hospitals are implementing electronic patient records (it’s not exactly something that can be done quickly). As for up-skilling, doctors are obliged to continuous professional development (often at significant cost to themselves). Spare us the pontificating. You obviously don’t know what you’re talking about.
@@mdmak33: Arrogance.com and they’re like petulant children since the election…
SF….there you go. Your problem now, have it sorted in two weeks or else the nation will turn on you.
@Emma Fitzpatrick: are they in government now?
@Emma Fitzpatrick: Show me when, SF, or any other government were ever allowed take on the problem. You seem to think that FFG that put the health system in its current state (remember FFG have only been in charge of health) will sort the problem. After 100 years, they haven’t yet, and made it’s worse in the last few years. SF, plus a right, could be the right government.
@Dave Thomas: no but they should be as they will sort it all out. If Sinn Fein are in government for say 10 years there would be no homeless people, no waiting lists in hospitals, everyone would have a house. We would have a united Ireland, it would be a perfect utopia of sorts. Why people can’t see this and put them into power is beyond me.
@Emma Fitzpatrick: why am I not surprised that an FG’er would basically make political capital about 500,000 people waiting to see a consultant…
When it was their party who created this mess in the first place.
I hope you feel good trying to troll a party using people’s misery….
Well done you
@Emma Fitzpatrick: grow up
@Emma Fitzpatrick: pitiful nonsense.
@David Corrigan: Just looking forward to the immediate and immense changes, as promised, by SF in the coming weeks….Up the Ra….
@Emma Fitzpatrick: imagine being this dumb.
@Noely Kelly: Emma and her he ilk are making political losses Noel not capitalisation and its joyous to watch
@Greg Daniel:
@Greg Daniel: Wow. Seriously. Your that naive? Really??
@Greg Daniel: I dont support FF or FG but to believe that any one party can fix all the problems in ten years and include a united Ireland in that. Its ridiculous! Uniting Ireland will mean our government must replace the 12bn needed to cover Northern Irelands annual deficit. Considering our dept of finance estimates we will have 11bn to spend over 5 years its financially impossible to achieve all you hope for in such a short space of time as 10 years.
Somebody has to pay for Harris’s folly .
@Justice Mickey:
Everyone will have to pay more taxes.
Can someone explain why Irish tax payers paid much more per person to HSE than British government paids to NHS who have free health care for all its citizens or subjects from the cradle to grave when you take it HSE gave free health care to just 50% of the population mostly made up of people don’t work or who’s is on very low income and SF are going to sort all this out and gives Irish state first class health service for the entire population how many more billions will it cost.
@Bobby wilson: someone has to line Harris’ pocket and pay for his absurd project
@Ryan: this has been going for years long be Harris.
@Bobby wilson: seriously?? The HSE only serve 50% of the people and the majority of them don’t work??
My God, but you FG Spin merchants are rapidly running out of material
@Noely Kelly: 50% of Irish the population have medical cards which allows free health care while other 50% don’t have medical cards have to paid to see a doctor I live in Belfast everybody can see doctor for free so how come Irish tax payers paid much more than British tax payers per person who free health for all
@Bobby wilson: 50% of people do not have medical cards. Of the ones who do I’m glad that those who really need them have them. If the price to pay for that is a few wasters playing the system, it’s not a great price but it’s worth it.
@Aidan: ask the question how come the British tax payers get better value for 100% free health care for all it’s citizens /subject’s from the cradle to the grave compared with the NHS as against the HSE something does seen right.
@Noely Kelly: so you think I am FG supporter really!
@Bobby wilson: because we waste so much more..the brits would not allow themselves to be treated like this either..Harris wouldn’t last a wet week in the UK
I wonder might any of the problem be down to the hospital and the consultants? I find it hard to believe this is solely a government issue.
@Louise Tracey: funny that because as far as I was aware the government or responsible for every department under their governance and now I’m really confused
@Dave Stewart: You can’t honestly think Simon Harris was involved in the day to day running of every single health center in Ireland? Although I’ve seen plenty of your comments over the last few months and what you believe is pretty ridiculous so actually not that surprised.
@Louise Tracey: what I belive is ridiculous, what would those beliefs be Louise the belief SF would wipe the floor with ye or if not what other beliefs would that be?
@Dave Stewart: Comment of the decade, stream-of-consciousness. Try English next time.
@Louise Tracey: as for believing Simon Harris had anything to do with the running of the department he stands over on an “day to day” running of his ministry yes I agree, I don’t believe it.
@Con Cunningham: jeez it might take me a while to recover from that Con
@Louise Tracey: or the patient? Highly litigious population leads to expensive defensive medicine
Urgent cardiology requested by GP and echo booked for late July . Appointment took 1.5 month despite being urgent . Stress test in May and another simple test , end of April . It’s unbelievably bad . Shocking . It’s not a funding problem it’s total disorganisation and whole departments in public hospital doubling down as private and public .
Waiting lists are inversely proportional to the amount of doctors….. the less doctors, the longer the list
@FacelessJuniorDoctor: so more doctor’s more consultants more nurses more beds how come the British government can do it cheaper maybe SF have spoken to British government about it
@Bobby wilson: but SF plan to tax doctors note , right?
@John fitzpatrick: proper order a pal of mine is sueing the gov through hse through double jobbing
There needs to be consultations 7 days a week for a start
@Jude: 24 h
@Jude: 24 hours a day ?
Because weekend consultations would be cheaper? Who’s going to work on Sunday for base rate ? Clinic nurses / reception staff ?
Super idea
@geraldo: Do you realise how many patients don’t bother to turn up to their appointments? Funnily enough, not all problems in the health service are caused by the HSE.
@Philip Kavanagh: Text them. They’re probably homeless by now and only have a mobile phone.
Has anybody tried voting ffg?
@Dave Thomas: around 70% I believe
@Jim Buckley Barrett: So why don’t they get off their lazy butts and fix the health crisis now.
@Jim Buckley Barrett: FFG got a combined vote of 45%.
@Dave Thomas: never voted for FFG an never will
@Jim Buckley Barrett: are you using Noonan’s calculator?
Me, another victim waiting since last 6 months
@Mahender Kumar: Dont worry the FG lakies will be along shortly with their statistics tellling you eveything will be ok. We are not as bad as x country that is 20,000 km away. But then the same fools are outraged when a tax increase is introduced for people on €140k +…
@Mark: 100k plus. Read the manifesto .
@John fitzpatrick: Dont worry the FG lakies will be along shortly with their statistics tellling you eveything will be ok. We are not as bad as x country that is 20,000 km away. But then the same fools are outraged when a tax increase is introduced for people on €100k +… Is that better for you now?
Maybe it’s best to privatize the health service since no party in Ireland can seem to figure out how to fix this?
@Christopher Mulrooney #WeAreStarfleet: that would only make the existing two tier system even more unfair ads timely treatment would only be avsilable to the better off.
@Christopher Mulrooney #WeAreStarfleet: only 2 party’s have had a go of it…and made a COMPLETE HAMES of it…
And one of the is your party
@Bobby wilson: https://www.statista.com/statistics/660763/medical-card-scheme-ireland/ Your figures are incorrect,refer to table, in 2012 the number of people with a medical card peaked at 40.4% but since then the numbers have declined year on year to 32.4% in 2018.
@Honeybee: so Irish tax payers are getting even less value per person than British tax payers 32.4% have free health care and in Britain its a 100% free health care that’s even more outrageous where is all the billions and billions euro’s going
@Bobby wilson: to HSE middle management and on overpriced hospitals in poor locations.
@Aidan: great! so if that’s rectified will Irish tax payers get good value for its health service
@Bobby wilson: I think your a bit more clever Bob than your presenting pray tell what’s your angle?
@Dave Stewart: all I ask was a simple question how come Irish tax payers paid more money per person for the HSE and get full free health care
For 32.4% of its population while the british government [tax payers] get full free health care NHS for all its citizens /subject’s from the cradle to grave nobody seen to be giving me a satisfied reason why Irish tax payers are not getting good value for there hard earned cash… I am not
socialist but I believe 100% that every single citizen in society should be given first class free health care at point of entry regardless of there income more than any other services in the state and willing to paid what ever tax it requires for it ..
It’s the Two Tier System that at fault and nothing else
@pat seery: Clearly not. The private system actually takes pressure off the public one . If we lumped everyone into the public system the waiting lists would get longer. The problem is the gross inefficiency of the public system (despite massive funding). Remember people who are availing of the private treatment also pay taxes in addition to their private health insurance. The reason that many people are willing to do that is because they can’t trust the public system. The answer is to get our lousy inefficient over-protected public sector out of the health care business. We need to look to Europe, not the UK (where the NHS is failing), and adopt a system of social insurance. There’s no such thing as a waiting list in Germany.
Sometimes problems like this should not be made political. Just get it sorted!
Finally getting to see consultant next week after two year wait
It would be interesting if someone could collate just how many people have died while waiting to see a consultant or have tests done.
I personally know of two people who have passed away waiting for an appointment with a consultant.
Also it would make a huge difference if GPs were allowed to order MRI scans.
FF FG stop fickin around
Urgent cardiology and echo booked for late July . Appointment took 1.5 month despite being urgent . Stress test in May and another simple test , end of April . It’s unbelievably bad . Shocking .
@Isabel Oliveira: I think Irish tax payers are go to have spend trillions euros to get first class free health care for all its people
@Bobby wilson: its not a funding problem it’s doubling in private and public and disorganisation . it’s Unacceptable & avoidable .
@Isabel Oliveira: and the ridiculous levels and pay of HSE middle management.
@Isabel Oliveira: so turn all private hospital’s into public hospitals and free health care for its citizens will that cost how much more money and will it be good value for the tax payers
2-Tier Irish Health system … no Waiting Lists for VHI patients? – obscene queue jumpers …
Productivity levels pathetic: procedures / unit / day
UK = 16
Irish Private hospital = 8 .
Irish public hospital = 4 ….
Counting Trolleys … wrong metric!
Second Troika only answer ….
@Neuville-Kepler62F: heh?
Could they be consulted abroad ? I am slightly shamed to ask but the cataract system they have with Northern Ireland is brilliant because it is saving eyesight . Do we have the technology here to treat once consulted? In the back of my mind it gnaws on me if the medical profession are worried about making the wrong diagnosis in this country and fall liable ( or at least the hospital they are employed by would) ? I love a good puzzle and the health system here sure is a good one , surely somebody with the medical knowledge likes puzzles too . I love going to see the hospitals when I’m on holiday , so flawlessly functioning, an o.c.d. delight
@Kayleigh Corcoran: Yes. That’s what the national treatment fund is supposed to be for.
And me hole wants to go back in with FG
Admitted to Beaumont public in March for chest pain an queried COPD. Hesrtstents and discharge with emergency app for pulmonary clinic. Specialist runs both public and private clinic in same hospital. Saw privately in July (no private insurance). Consultant referred back to public with list of tests needed before appointment. Received notification for December app. But could not have tests done in advance as had to have first appointment in public and then go on list for tests. CRAZY box ticking exercise. Waste of my money and tax money and hospital resources.
@June Kennedy: it is now nearly 12 months since original admittance
Genuinely, that figure is mind boggling.
Seems it’s like the childhood game ,pass the parcel.like so many things in Irish Society promises are made .default occurs,and the probelm is dumped into the lap of the next administration. No accountability
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