Estimate of 100,000 people on hospital lists questioned

An estimate of over 100,000 people on hospital waiting lists for outpatient treatment has been questioned by a health board and the Department of Health.

The figures were obtained by the Irish Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act. A spokeswoman for the Western Health Board said it was important to point out the figures had not been validated.

Validation of the list would show if the patient had received treatment elsewhere, moved out of the region, cancelled their treatment or died, she said. This validation should result in a much lower figure.

The figures showed some out- patients at Mayo General Hospital were waiting for up to 10 years for dermatology treatment, seven years for urology treatment and five years for orthopaedic treatment. The spokeswoman said the health board was not denying there were delays in some cases, but many of the patients listed may not still be waiting for treatment.

She said new orthopaedic facilities would be available in Mayo later this year. The addition of three orthopaedic surgeons would have a major effect on the waiting list, she said.

The Southern Health Board publishes details of its waiting lists on its website (www.shb.ie). On December 31st, 2001, some 3,964 adults were waiting for outpatient treatment at Cork University Hospital, compared with 535 people waiting for in-patient treatment. Just over 350 people were waiting for three years or more - 228 of these were waiting for plastic surgery treatment.

In Tralee General Hospital, 3,541 adults were waiting for outpatient treatment on December 30th, 2001 compared with 106 people waiting for in-patient treatment. The greatest number of people (1,914) were waiting for three to 12 months.

The Department of Health did not collate information on outpatient waiting lists, so it could not accept or refute the figures, a spokesman said. However, he questioned the methodology used to calculate the figures.

He said new measures under the health strategy would help to reduce outpatient waiting list numbers. Nurse-led clinics would be introduced where possible, acute hospitals would allocate individual appointments to each out-patient and an assessment of out-patient recall dates would be undertaken.