HSE figures show one in 12 are on outpatient waiting list

One Irish person in 12 is on an outpatient waiting list, according to Health Service Executive figures which point to a difficult winter for Minister for Health Leo Varadkar.

The figures show an accelerating trend in all main categories of waiting list, and the HSE says this pattern is expected to continue to the end of the year.

Over 360,000 people are waiting for an outpatient appointment, with over 10 per cent of these on the list for over a year.

Meanwhile, waiting lists for inpatient services and daycare for children and adults, which had been largely cleared at the end of last year, are growing exponentially.

Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher said it was up to Mr Varadkar to follow up his rhetoric by securing enough money in the budget to tackle the problem.

Meanwhile, the HSE was €285 million overbudget to the end of July and is projecting a €510 million end-of-year deficit. Hospitals were €160 million overbudget to the end of July.

Outpatient waiting lists have grown for seven consecutive months, the HSE’s performance assurance report for July shows. The total on outpatient lists at the end of last year was 300,752, but reached 360,753 in July.

‘Long-waiters’ soar

While no one is supposed to be waiting more than 12 months for an outpatient appointment, the number of such “long-waiters” has soared from 4,937 at the end of last year to 31,813 at the end of April and 37,876 in July. The numbers waiting between one and two years for an outpatient appointment increased from 3,990 at the end of last year to 35,165 by the end of May. The numbers waiting between two and four years for an appointment jumped from 903 to 2,667.

There are 29,202 on the waiting list at Tallaght hospital, 27,786 people on Galway University Hospitals, 25,066 at Waterford Regional Hospital, and 21,413 at Beaumont Hospital.

Just four adult patients were waiting more than eight months for inpatient daycare treatment at the end of 2013, but this figure grew to 7,727 at the end of July. The number of children waiting over the target time of 20 weeks for inpatient and daycare operations and treatments increased from 193 at the end of last year to 1,505 at the end of July.

Over the same period the number of patients waiting for referral for a routine colonoscopy jumped from 96 to 3,247.

The number of delayed-discharge patients is also growing each month. The HSE says the funding to enable these patients to discharge to care facilities is “not currently available”.