Cork hospital sees 101% increase in outpatient waiting list as IHCA calls for urgent action from Government 

THE Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has called for urgent action from the Government to tackle increasingly long waiting lists over the past 12 months, with a Cork hospital experiencing a 101% increase in its outpatient waiting list.

The IHCA has warned that the Government must not let another year pass by without addressing what the association has described as the “twin deficits” in Irish hospitals, namely, a shortage of consultants and a lack of sufficient public hospital capacity.

It comes as the latest data released by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) showed that 879,277 people are now on some form of waiting list.

This is an increase of over 40,600 people in the past year, or around 114 people added to public hospital waiting lists every single day throughout 2021.

The IHCA said the latest NTPF figures reveal the hospitals which saw the highest increases in outpatient waiting lists in 2021, topped by Cork University Maternity Hospital which experienced a 101% increase.

Meanwhile, Cork University Hospital experienced a 24% increase in its outpatient waiting list in 2021, it said.

“More people were waiting for hospital treatment at the end of 2021 than at the start of the year, despite a four-month action plan from Government to address the issue,” said IHCA president Alan Irvine.

“These waiting lists are not being brought under control quick enough and the lack of progress in the past year is really damning.

“Unfortunately, with the recent increases in Covid cases, overcrowding in our emergency departments, and widespread cancellation of essential scheduled care and outpatient appointments, there is little prospect of the waiting list coming under control anytime soon,” said Prof Irvine.

“This is simply not good enough, irrespective of the pressures we are facing during this latest Covid wave.”

He said that due to the pressures faced in the system, “some of these people will be described erroneously as ‘non-urgent’ cases and have their scheduled appointments cancelled”.

“Their conditions will only become more serious and difficult to treat the longer they are left waiting — often in pain, suffering, and facing the psychological distress of not knowing when they will be able to receive care,” he added.