Most of the 140,000 public patients on waiting lists for a consultant appointment could be seen within 12 months if a successful pilot study was replicated across the State, a leading hospital developer has claimed.
Mr James Sheehan, founder of the Blackrock, Hermitage and Galway clinics, told The Irish Times that a pilot study by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) led to 1,600 patients from the West of Ireland accepting appointments to see consultants at the Galway Clinic last year.
Some of these patients had been waiting up to seven years for a consultant opinion in the public system.
"If similar initiatives could be undertaken by private hospitals and consultants for the 139,000 patients awaiting consultation and investigation, I estimate the waiting time could be largely eliminated within 12 months," Mr Sheehan said.
An analysis of the NTPF patients seen at the Galway Clinic last year shows 37 per cent were referred back to their GP without the need for further investigation.
Some 23 per cent required further tests, while 35 per cent needed surgery following their initial assessment.
One in 20 of those seen was referred back to their local public hospital for treatments such as physiotherapy or the provision of hearing aids.
Mr Sheehan pointed out that recent figures confirm that the real waiting lists are not for hospital procedures but patients waiting to be seen by an appropriate consultant for the first time.
Under the 2007 NTPF out-patient programme, patients were seen in the Galway Clinic by a range of specialists, including orthopaedic surgeons, rheumatologists and ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeons.
Preliminary national figures from the NTPF show that in 2007 a total of 20,000 public patients were offered an outpatient appointment in the private sector with some 10,500 consultations actually taking place.
At least 25 public hospitals referred both medical and surgical patients to the out-patient programme.
Of the 7,480 patients who accepted an offer for an appointment in the private sector from the NTPF in 2006, 42 per cent required surgery while 32 per cent were discharged back to their GP.
Some 16 per cent required further investigation, while 10 per cent of people did not attend on two occasions and were removed from the waiting list.
In 2006 the programme succeeded in reducing waiting times for orthopaedics in Cork University Hospital from five years to 18 months and for ENT in Tallaght from two years to 12 months.Patients who were waiting up to four years to see an endocrine specialist can now be seen in two months.
A national treatment spokesman declined to comment on the latest figures in advance of the publication of its 2007 annual report.