ALMOST 24,000 children were waiting for outpatient appointments at the capital’s three children’s hospitals last year and over 1,000 were waiting for more than 12 months, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act.
The snapshot figures from Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, the Children’s University Hospital, Temple Street and the National Children’s Hospital, Tallaght, show particular pressure on specialties including ear, nose and throat, cardiology, general surgery and dermatology.
The largest single outpatient waiting list was to see an ophthalmic specialist at Our Lady’s, where almost 2,300 children were waiting at the end of last May.
Over 450 of these children were waiting more than six months and 10 were waiting for longer than 12 months, though the figures released did not stipulate how much longer.
More than 1,600 children were waiting to be seen by ear, nose and throat specialists at Temple Street at the end of May last year. Over 300 children had been waiting more than 12 months.
At Tallaght hospital, the longest list was also to see ear, nose and throat specialists, with over 700 children waiting when the figures were collated there in July. Waiting times for this hospital were released only as “median” figures and the wait for this specialty was shown as 3.3 months.
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 a 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, which detail how long a patient waits for surgery or a procedure once seen by a consultant.
Over 14,000 children were waiting for first appointments with specialists at Our Lady's, according to the figures released to The Irish Times. After ophthalmic, general surgery, which deals with abdominal surgery such as for appendicitis, had the largest waiting list at the hospital, with almost 2,200 children.
But the specialty with the longest delays at the hospital was cardiology. Almost 2,100 children were waiting for first appointments for this specialty; nearly half of these were waiting more than six months and over 180 were waiting for longer than 12 months.
Nearly 300 children wishing to see orthopaedic, neurology or ear, nose and throat specialists were also waiting longer than 12 months.
At Temple Street, over 6,600 children were waiting for first outpatient appointments. After ear, nose and throat, the longest delay in getting appointments was in general surgery. Some 110 children were waiting longer than 12 months for this specialty, which had a total waiting list of just under 1,000.
There were delays of over 12 months for 35 children waiting for appointments with a dermatology specialist at the hospital and 26 children were waiting more than a year to be seen at neonatology. There were also delays of more than 12 months for some children in urology, nephrology, and cardiology.
It was not possible to determine from the figures released by Tallaght hospital how long children were waiting for appointments as only “median” figures were provided. Apart from ear, nose and throat, the largest waiting list was for paediatric medicine, with 662 children waiting a median of 2.8 months. Though this figure shows a large number of children were seen within three months, it does not preclude that some children could have waited for over a year.
Some 280 children were waiting to see a respiratory medicine specialist, with a median wait of 2.7 months. And over 260 were waiting to be seen in general surgery, where the median wait was almost a month.
