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Over 612,000 people waiting on outpatient hospital care

The outpatient waiting list has grown by nearly 45,600 since last year.

MORE THAN 612,000 people are awaiting outpatient care as hospital waiting lists around the country continue to grow, including 45,000 in need of an appointment from Children’s Health Ireland.

As of the end of October, 612,817 outpatients in Ireland are on a waiting list for care, according to the latest figures from the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF).

The number of people waiting to be seen by a consultant has reached a record high.

The waiting list has grown by nearly 45,600 since last year, when over 567,000 were awaiting care at the end of October 2019.

In the south and southwest, hospitals in Cork, South Tipperary, Kerry and Waterford have the highest collective number of outpatients waiting to be seen of any regional hospital group in the country.

Closely following is the Ireland East Hospital Group, which includes several hospitals in Dublin, Kildare, Westmeath, Kilkenny and Wexford; and the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group, which includes the Midland Regional Hospitals in Portlaoise and Tullamore and more hospitals in Dublin, Kildare, and Offaly.

Overall, there are more than 844,000 people in Ireland on waiting lists for healthcare.

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has pointed to 500 vacant consultation positions as a factor to the growing waiting lists.

IHCA President Professor Alan Irvine said that the government ” can no longer ignore the fundamental requirement that the provision of timely hospital care to patients cannot be achieved with an insufficient number of hospital consultants and hundreds of vacant permanent consultant posts”.

No amount of investment in services will reduce waiting lists unless we recruit and retain the necessary number of consultants to deliver timely care.”

Irvine said that in addition to filling the consultant posts, “additional acute hospital capacity needs to be commissioned and opened at speed to provide essential care to non-Covid-19 patients as well as to Covid-19 patients”.

Sinn Féin spokesperson for Health David Cullinane said that the latest figures show wait times are “going up year-on-year”.

“In October 2016, the number of people on outpatient waiting lists was 438,931. This had grown to 567,221 by September 2019 and now stands at 612,817,” Cullinane said.

“Of that, the number of patients waiting 18 months or longer since 2016 has risen from 26,796 to 153,872. That is an increase of 127,076 patients over four years,” he said.

“The numbers waiting 18 months or longer for an inpatient procedure have risen from 4,733 to 8,498 in the last year.

“Several constituents who came to me are part of 7,963 waiting more than a year on a cardiology appointment,” Cullinane said.

“Cardiovascular problems are, alongside cancer, the leading cause of death in this state. Yet the number of people waiting more than a year has doubled in the last four years,” he said.

“Despite all of the spin, wait times are going up year-on-year, and this is not Covid-related.

“Treatment for scoliosis in children and cancer services – medical, radiology and surgery oncology – are also down nearly 30% this year.”

Cullinane said that Ireland needs to “get real” about “investing in health or we will continue to cause more suffering and hardship for people in need of urgent treatment.”

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    Mute mickmc
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    May 22nd 2017, 1:31 PM

    And if they accepted the original proposal they’d be better off. Once again we have the union bosses leading their member on a merry dance to no where.

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    Mute Soccer T's
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    May 22nd 2017, 2:36 PM

    @mickmc: At least 87% of the union members voted. Compare this to the numbers of teachers who actually voted to give ASTI a “mandate” for industrial action! Usually around 35/40%

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    Mute Soccer T's
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    May 22nd 2017, 2:51 PM

    @Soccer T’s: Correction: I see that on the last Asti ballot it was 77% of members who voted which probably accounted for the very narrow margin of victory for more industrial action (only 52% in favour) Nice of them to actually turn up to vote this time compared to the vote in 2015 when only a handful of members actually voted, meaning the delusional militants got their way. This is our kids future they are destroying while they couldn’t even take the time to vote!!

    Interestingly the kids sitting the junior cert in a few weeks are the kids who should be sitting the new junior cert 3 years after it was supposed to be introduced!!

    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/teachers-threaten-further-industrial-action-after-split-vote-1.2364660?mode=amp

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    Mute booby sandwiches
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    May 22nd 2017, 4:33 PM

    biggest climbdown in history PMSL

    Leo is going to sort these evil unions out #Leoforleader

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    Mute Adrian™
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    May 22nd 2017, 1:39 PM

    What are the terms they are agreeing to? And compared to what they were first offered? Bit more info wouldn’t go astray in the story.

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    Mute Keith Grant
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    May 22nd 2017, 1:29 PM

    Looks like all those weeks of strike were well worth it ay?? Ahahahah

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    Mute Keith Grant
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    May 22nd 2017, 1:28 PM

    Hahahahahah

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    Mute abcyz
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    May 22nd 2017, 1:39 PM

    The union & some drivers were on Liveline etc saying our OAPS & disabled shouldn’t be allowed free travel even tough it was and is widely used for hospital appointments etc. There wasn’t much challenge by media presenters during the strike about the unfair travel card demonisation stories even by drivers themselves on liveline.

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    Mute dead right
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    May 22nd 2017, 2:30 PM

    @abcyz: thats absolute b@llox your spouting no driver or union representative ever said the people you mentioned shouldn’t be allowed travel for free not once.

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    Mute Soccer T's
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    May 22nd 2017, 2:40 PM

    @abcyz: That’s total bull! They suggested that we should revisit the payments made by the government to the free travel scheme. It’s a fixed amount each year no matter how many actually use the service. They were making the point that a huge number of pensioners never even use the travel pass. With the new travel pass surely they can implement a system of “use or lose”. Why should the taxpayer pay for something that isn’t being used? If a pensioners travel pass is cancelled due to lack of use they should be allowed to reapply but simply making blind payments is ridiculous

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    Mute Soccer T's
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    May 22nd 2017, 2:41 PM

    @Soccer T’s: Or maybe we should just offer giving every adult children’s allowance just in case they have kids

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    Mute dead right
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    May 22nd 2017, 2:56 PM

    @abcyz: there wasnt much media challenge on the issue beacuse it was never said ah well you got 26 likes good try

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    Mute Stouts O Shea
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    May 22nd 2017, 5:25 PM

    @Soccer T’s: your day s of scewing the public are over

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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello.
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    May 22nd 2017, 2:04 PM

    Took their sweet time voting, didn’t they.

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    Mute Gerry Carroll
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    May 22nd 2017, 2:57 PM

    Poor mites – already paid more than 40% over the private companies drivers and greed drive them to look for more – diddums. The blatant bleating for ‘all stakeholders’ to get involved was embarrassing; for stakeholders read chequebooks. I’m far from a fan of Transport Minister Ross but in this instance he was right not to dip further into taxpayers’ pockets to transfer their money directly into already overpaid drivers rabid with greed. Looking for a pay rise from a company already trading at a loss? Three weeks on strike and they got a pay cut, redundancies, new rosters, picking litter from buses they never did before, reduced overtime – good work lads.

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    Mute Terry Cahill
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    May 22nd 2017, 1:59 PM

    Scared sitless ! So they were !

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    Mute Paul
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    May 22nd 2017, 1:48 PM

    Shocked they back it and by a high margin.

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    Mute P.J. Nolan
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    May 22nd 2017, 2:12 PM

    @Paul:
    Didn’t thing that would pass

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    Mute Gavin Redmond
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    May 22nd 2017, 2:17 PM

    And the unions saying there still may be a possibility of strike if the company change the agreement. So who is calling the shots.

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    Mute Paul
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    May 22nd 2017, 1:48 PM

    Shocked they back it and by a high margin.

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    Mute Gerry Carroll
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    May 22nd 2017, 4:39 PM

    Not sure it was the union leaving the charge on this – may have been the drivers driving (no pun intended) the union to enable their fanciful out of touch with reality demands

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    Mute Eric Djemba-Djemba
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    May 22nd 2017, 10:00 PM

    Let it rot and die so it can be privatised and ran properly by a company. Don’t know anybody from Wexford that chooses bus eireann over the Wexford bus service as they are miles apart in quality and reliability best thing to ever happen.

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    Mute Jimmy jones
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    May 22nd 2017, 4:35 PM

    What an overpaid clown Dermot o Leary is . He has made them all look very silly

    14
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