More than 14,000 people removed from outpatient waiting lists without ever being treated in Cork last year

Some 14,112 people were removed from outpatient hospital waiting lists in Cork last year without ever being treated, new data has shown.

The removals through a National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) ‘validation’ process mark a 32% increase from the 2023 figures, when 10,709 people were removed, and the removals represent 17% of those who were on waiting lists at the end of 2023.

This validation involves hospital administration contacting patients on waiting lists to ensure that they are still available to attend appointments or require their procedure.

There were 82,335 people on waiting lists in Cork hospitals in December 2023, which reduced to 79,655 in December 2024.

However, this modest reduction of 2,680 would not have been possible without the removal of these 14,112 people who were not treated.

Data provided to The Echo through the Freedom of Information scheme show that there were 132,951 removals nationally, up from 104,696 the year before.

There were 6,842 removals from Cork University Hospital waiting lists, meaning Cork was the fifth worst affected hospital in the country.

The Cork data also includes 4,985 removals from South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital lists, 1,853 from the Mercy, 212 from Bantry, 133 from Cork University Maternity Hospital and 87 from Mallow.

'CHALLENGING'

Blackpool GP and Fianna Fáil councillor for Cork City North West Dr John Sheehan told The Echo that it was important to have some sort of validation scheme in place, but that changes were needed to it.

“Things change, patients may access care in other ways, their condition could be resolved, they could go abroad or seek treatment privately.

“The problem of people not showing up to appointments can be a challenging, even if you ring people the day before, evidence shows there is still a ‘Did Not Attend’ rate of 10%, which is a significant number when appointments are so sought after.” 

However, sending the validation communication only by post was an issue, he said, explaining: “We have to acknowledge that lots of younger patients move around more, so the letter might go to the wrong address.

“Also, there are people who have come to live in Ireland and speak another language or have literacy difficulties who are disadvantaged.

“Elderly people sometimes feel nervous to reply to the letter in case that takes them off the list, or they can forget to reply, then they think they are still on the list and they may not be.

“We see patients attend sometimes and they bring a letter they got a month or two ago that they never replied to and we have to tell them they’re not on the list.

“There also has to be a degree of flexibility shown if someone doesn’t get the letter after they’ve already been waiting a year so that they’re not dismissed back to the bottom of the queue.” 

He added: “It’s also important that the validation process isn’t done as a way of making waiting lists look like they’re getting a lot better than they actually are.” 

Dr Sheehan suggested that the HSE should look at improving the technology systems in general, acknowledging that they were working on digitalising but suggesting: “You could log on with your PPS number or another unique identifier, and check that you’re still on the list and where you are on it. It shouldn’t be too hard to do in this day and age.

“We saw people go online to buy hurling tickets and it tells them they’re number 2,000 in the queue, we have it for concerts and matches so we should be able to do it for a much slower moving system.” It comes as 79,846 people, including 9,279 children were waiting for treatment in Cork hospitals as of the end of February, an increase from the month previous, with 14,780 people waiting over a year.

The Echo contacted the HSE for comment.