Over 30,000 children waiting more than a year for hospital treatment, figures show

The number of children waiting for an appointment to be assessed or treated in public hospitals stood at 101,000 at the end of June — with more than 30,000 waiting for more than a year, according to the latest figures from the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

The length of waiting lists has been sharply criticised by the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) which said many problems evident in the system 25 years ago remained in place — a feature which not only affected children but led to hospital staff leaving Ireland to find work elsewhere.

Prof Stephanie Ryan, who recently retired as a consultant paediatric radiologist at Temple Street hospital — now renamed Children’s Health Ireland — said many of the problems that were present in the Irish health service 25 years ago are still present “or worse” today.

Speaking on behalf of the IHCA which set up the Care Can’t Wait campaign in 2019, Prof Ryan said the figure of 101,000 for the number of children on waiting lists “fails to provide an accurate picture of the scale of the number of children waiting for care, as hospital diagnostics are not included in the NTPF data”.

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“When the additional 8,294 children awaiting CTs, MRIs or ultrasounds at the end of March 2022 are added, the total number is close to 110,000,″ she said.

With 30,500 children now waiting longer than a year for an appointment with a hospital consultant or access to essential care and treatment, Prof Ryan said she was concerned about the impact long delays can have on children’s healthcare outcomes.

“Delays in diagnosis can delay treatment and there can be lifelong impacts as well. For example, with simple ear problems in young children, this can affect their language learning at a critical time. Sometimes the treatment of children with special needs or the formation of a plan for their care can be delayed by waiting for an MRI scan. This could mean a long wait for access to treatment at a critical age in a child’s development. If a child needs a scan, I just wish we could provide the service and not have them waiting. No consultant or parent wants this,” she said.

For consultant radiologists, including those specialising in paediatrics, the challenge of trying to prioritise access to care is especially complicated, “by the very nature of the fact that you need the scan to make a diagnosis, it is difficult to identify those with more serious problems before the scan”, said Prof Ryan.

Prof Ryan said consultant recruitment and retention was in crisis, with capacity shortages and long waiting lists for children having “plagued the system for over a quarter of a century”.

“It really shouldn’t be a battle that’s taking up time and wearing people down and causing people to become disheartened.”

Citing data from the Health Service Executive, she said one in five permanent consultant posts, some 882 positions, were vacant or filled on a temporary basis. This included 60 of the 320 approved posts in radiology.

“Ireland has the lowest number of medical specialists per 1,000 population in the EU at 1.59, some 38 per cent below the EU average of 2.56,” she said. “In radiology, the number of specialists is even lower at 40 per cent below the EU average on a population basis.”

The IHCA said the shortage of consultants was the main contributor to the unacceptable delays in providing care to children.

Prof Ryan’s comments were made in a new video released on social media today by the IHCA as part of its #CareCantWait campaign. The video is available here.

The HSE and the Department of Health were asked to respond to Prof Ryan’s comments.