BACKGROUND:MORE THAN 60,000 patients were on outpatient waiting lists to see consultants at hospitals in Dublin in 2011, new figures show.
The figures, collated from Freedom of Information applications obtained from the capital’s five major voluntary hospitals, show some patients were waiting for up to 2½ years for first appointments with specialists.
The longest delays were at Beaumont Hospital where patients seeking appointments in dermatology, endocrinology and the diabetic clinic waited up to 30 months before seeing a consultant.
Numbers supplied by the Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Tallaght showed “median” waiting times only, with the longest in adult ophthalmology, where patients had a median wait of 12.1 months; this would mean some patients were waiting at least two years to see a specialist.
The time spent on an outpatient waiting list refers to the length of time a patient has to wait to be seen by a hospital consultant once referred by their GP.
Figures for numbers of patients on outpatient waiting lists and the length of time they have to wait have never been published by the Health Service Executive or the Department of Health. The only waiting list figures traditionally published are those for inpatient waiting lists which detail how long a patient waits for surgery or a procedure once seen by a consultant.
The new figures show Beaumont Hospital, which is the national referral centre for the specialities of neurosurgery and neurology, had almost 13,000 people waiting to see specialists at the end of April. And there was a further 2,000 patients who had not yet been given dermatology outpatient appointments when the figures were collected.
Appointments for the sleep clinic were given up to 18 months in advance and patients waiting to see a consultant at the pain control clinic waited 11 months, although urgent cases were seen in three to four weeks.
The wait to see neurology specialists was up to 13 months, depending on the consultant. Patients waited up to 16 months for some consultants on the neurosurgery list.
There was also a 12-month wait for outpatient appointments with the cochlear implant specialist and patients waited nine months to see one rheumatology consultant.
Tallaght hospital, which has one of the largest outpatient centres in the State, had almost 21,000 patients waiting for their first appointment with a consultant at the end of July this year.
Along with adult ophthalmology, patients waiting to be seen at the adult ear, nose and throat clinic also had a long wait; with a median delay of 10.2 months, which could equate to up to two years for some patients.
The Mater hospital had more than 11,000 on its outpatient waiting list. Those seeking ophthalmology appointments seemed to fare badly here also, with waits of up to two years. Like Beaumont Hospital, there were long queues for dermatologists, with 120 patients waiting to see a specialist for almost two years when the figures were compiled in June. There was a similar wait for orthopaedics.
At St Vincent’s University Hospital, 299 patients seeking appointments with orthopaedics specialists were waiting longer than a year, but how much longer was not outlined in the figures supplied. Some patients who needed to see dermatology, cardiology and ear, nose and throat specialists were waiting up to a year.
When the hospital collected the figures in April, almost 8,000 were on outpatient waiting lists.
At St James’s Hospital, the figure was almost 6,000 when collected in April. The longest wait at this hospital was for dermatology where 53 of the 936 patients booked for outpatient appointments had been waiting for 18 months. Waits at the rheumatology clinic were also lengthy with 46 of the 229 patients waiting for a year.
Minister vowed to tackle waiting times
IN MARCH, Minister for Health James Reilly announced he was setting up a Special Delivery Unit (SDU) to tackle hospital waiting times. Its first priority was to tackle delays in emergency departments, he said.
Then at the end of July, the Minister announced changes to the National Treatment Purchase Fund, the body set up in 2002 to address delays with inpatient lists. The Minister said he would require all hospitals to ensure they had no patient listed as waiting over 12 months for treatment by the end of the year.
He has not so far set a target for how long he thinks patients should wait on outpatient waiting lists. These are people we all know; the neighbours, the friends or the relatives who have been waiting to find out if they are suitable for that hip operation, or cochlear implant or the in-hospital care that might ease their severe dermatitis.
All are effectively queuing to join the queue. And some, like the 2,000 dermatology patients in Beaumont Hospital, are queuing to queue to join the queue.
Today’s figures show how long patients in Dublin in voluntary hospitals are being forced to wait. The Health Service Executive has refused to release data under the Freedom of Information Act on outpatient waiting lists at its hospitals. But at a HSE West forum meeting earlier this year, data was released showing 27,344 patients were on the outpatient waiting list at University Hospital Galway and a further 7,455 were on outpatient waiting lists for Merlin Park University Hospital.
Data for Cork University Hospital, Mercy University Hospital and South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital from spring this year showed almost 31,000 were waiting on outpatient waiting lists in the three hospitals.
Questions have also been raised in the Dáil about a Wexford patient who had been waiting five years to see an ear, nose and throat specialist. And the head of the NTPF, Pat O’Byrne, told a conference last March he understood there were about 200,000 people waiting for outpatient appointments, some for up to five years.
The Minister has set his sights on tackling emergency department delays, and has followed that up with inpatient list promises, but until there is transparency about outpatient waiting lists, it seems they will not be given the attention they deserve.
