The number of people waiting for hospital care continues to climb sharply as a result of delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, with close to 850,000 people now waiting for some form of treatment.

Figures published by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) on Friday evening suggest there were 612,576 patients waiting for a first hospital outpatient consultation at the end of November.

This compares with 601,362 people on the outpatient waiting list at the end of July. At the start of the year, just over 553,000 patients were on the list.

Hospital Report

An outpatient department treats people with health problems who visit the hospital for diagnosis or treatment, but do not require a bed or to be admitted for overnight care.

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The NTPF figures also show that at the end of last month there were 72,843 patients waiting for an appointment for an inpatient or day case treatment, with 33,411 people waiting to receive an appointment for a GI Endoscopy.

In addition, the NTPF also publishes data on pre-admissions and planned procedures.

The pre-admit data shows that 19,298 people have been given a date for in-patient, daycase or endoscopy procedures. A total of 88,984 patients are recorded in the planned procedure category, with 63,584 of these patients having been given indicative dates in the future or a scheduled appointment.

More treatment needed

These are patients who have already had treatment and require more at a future date. Indicative dates are determined by a clinician and treatment before these dates would not be appropriate.

As more patients are initially seen and given a follow-up appointment for ongoing treatment or surveillance, the numbers on the planned procedure list increase.

The Covid-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of all non-urgent hospital work in the spring and although activities have resumed across the health service, capacity is reduced to about 80 per cent or less due to the requirement for infection control.

"Today's NTPF waiting list figures again highlight the impact of hospital consultant shortages and capacity constraints on those waiting for an outpatient appointment and related surgery and treatment," said the Irish Hospital Consultant Association's president Prof Alan Irvine.

“Each statistic represents a person waiting for the care they desperately need, while potentially deteriorating clinically or living in pain.”

Unacceptable

The IHCA called on Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly to engage with it to agree practical plans to address the waiting lists and end the consultant recruitment and retention crisis to provide timely care to patients.

Prof Irvine said the figures highlighted “the impact of hospital consultant shortages and capacity constraints on those waiting for an outpatient appointment and related surgery”.

He said the “continued failure of the Government since 2012 to address the hospital consultant recruitment and retention crisis and other capacity deficits is the root cause of the record 844,757 people now on some form of NTPF waiting list, an increase of 75,993 (10 per cent) since the start of the year.”