Minister for Health Simon Harris has welcomed the first significant fall in public hospital waiting lists for two years but warned that emergency departments are going to remain under pressure for weeks.
The fall, to 536,000 patients waiting for inpatient treatment or outpatient appointments, is only 2,000 down on the previous month, but the latest figures from the National Purchase Treatment Fund appear to show that increased investment is beginning to have an impact on waiting times.
The number of patients waiting longer than a year for treatment or an appointment is also down, while long waits for gastrointestinal tests have been virtually eliminated.
The figures will come as a relief to the Minister, who has been under intense pressure over the past week due to record numbers of patients on trolleys in hospital emergency departments.
There were 466 patients waiting for admission to hospital on Monday morning, according to the daily count by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.
This was down on last week’s peak of 612, but trolley numbers are generally lower on Mondays. Despite the opening of extra beds in hospital across the State, Tuesday’s figures are likely to approach record levels.
Cold snap
Medical experts predict flu cases will peak over the next two to three weeks, and say a cold snap forecast for later in the week may exacerbate the problems of the health service.
The current crisis in emergency departments is also likely to have a knock-on effect on non-urgent work, with appointments cancelled in many hospitals in order to ease overcrowding.
Roscommon-South Leitrim Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice called on the Taoiseach to recall the Dáil this week to deal with the crisis in health.
Mr Fitzmaurice said “dozens” of his constituents were suffering the cancellation of operations due to bed shortages.
“The entire health system is in meltdown. It has gone way beyond political oneupmanship and point-scoring at this stage. People are suffering and it is so unfair,” he said.
Mr Harris admitted hospitals were facing “extraordinarily challenging” times and the situation was likely to continue for weeks.
“There is no point in me pretending or suggesting that we are not in for a number of very challenging weeks,” he admitted during a visit to Portlaoise.
The Minister was reacting to predictions of escalating pressure on hospitals with the flu outbreak likely to peak, a cold snap forecast and children returning to school.
A total of 535,974 patients were on waiting lists at the end of December, according to the latest monthly figures from the NTPF.
There were 437,558 people on the outpatient waiting list, down about 3,000 on the previous month. Of these, 84,316 were waiting longer than 12 months for an appointment, and 53,334 longer than 15 months.
Key targets
The HSE said the figures showed it was meeting key targets in its plan to address waiting lists. No patients are now waiting over three years for inpatient/day case procedures, and the number waiting over 18 months for day case procedures has been halved, it pointed out.
The inpatient waiting list was virtually unchanged, at 81,015. Of these, 12,798 were waiting longer than 12 months and 5,931 longer than 15 months - the latter figure represents an improvement of almost 3,000 in the space of a month.
While 16,577 patients are on the waiting list for gastrointestinal endoscopies, just 11 have been waiting longer than a year. Last June, this figure stood at 5,700.
The hospital with the longest outpatient waiting list is University Hospital Galway, at 34,807, followed by Cork University Hospital, where 27,000 patients are on the list.
