More than two-thirds of patients on hospital waiting lists have been waiting for longer than the target time, official figures show.
A total of 706,480 patients were on a waiting list of some kind at the end of last month, the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) said on Friday.
Of those, 595,575 were waiting for a first outpatient hospital appointment. According to the figures, there were 480,115 people waiting longer than the Sláintecare targets.
The 2017 Sláintecare report, which seeks to overhaul the health service, recommended maximum wait times of no more than 12 weeks for an inpatient/day-case procedure or a gastrointestinal endoscopy and 10 weeks for new outpatient appointments.
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There were 9,635 people waiting on a gastrointestinal endoscopy for longer than the target time, 52,753 waiting longer than target for inpatient procedure and 417,727 waiting longer for an outpatient appointment.
The Department of Health said the data shows there are improvements in terms of the length of time people are waiting to be seen.
According to the figures, there has been a 17 per cent reduction in the total number of patients waiting over 12 months since this time last year, and a corresponding reduction of 27 per cent in the number waiting over 18 months.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a 23 per cent reduction in the number of people waiting longer than the Sláintecare targets, the department said. The average time patients are waiting on the outpatient list has reduced from 13.2 months in July 2021 to just over seven months now.
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“While we have seen improvements in waiting times and in the level of activity being delivered, increased demand and higher than anticipated levels of additions to waiting lists have resulted in the volume of patients waiting across lists remaining too high,” the department said.
“The level of funding allocated to waiting lists for 2025 will ensure that this progress can continue to be built upon next year. Funding of €420 million is being allocated to the Waiting List Action Plan (WLAP) for 2025, encompassing €190 million for the HSE and €230 million for the NTPF.
“With this significant funding for 2025, we will continue to progress towards having a public healthcare service in which everyone has timely and transparent access to high-quality scheduled care, where and when they need it.”
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