There’s been a rise of 47% in the past year in the number of people waiting 18 months or more for an outpatient appointment at the region’s main hospital.
Figures released by the National Treatment Purchase Fund show that in September, 5,360 people were facing these long-term waits, though there was a slight drop in the inpatient numbers in the same situation.
In September of last year, there were 3,653 waiting a year and a half or more for an outpatient appointment at University Hospital Limerick.
According to the NTPF, that figure now stands at 5,360 – marking a 47% rise in the space of a year.
Last month saw 39,808 overall waiting on outpatient appointments across the UL Hospitals Group, with UHL alone accounting for 29,982 of those.
At Ennis General, that figure is 1,439 with 148 waiting a year and a half.
With regards to inpatient appointments, there were almost 5,400 people on waiting lists across the group in September with 2,508 of those at UHL and more than 800 in Ennis.
At UHL, 234 of those were waiting 18 months or more, with just three in that situation in Ennis.
The overall inpatient figure at UHL is down 5 percent on August.
The UL Hospitals Group says these figures are largely in line with national figures, are to be expected and reflect national policy.
Statement From The UL Hospitals Group:
THE latest NTPF figures (Sept) for UL Hospitals Group and nationally are in line with expectation.
They reflect national policy as announced by the Minister for Health where a focus would initially be placed on those waiting longest for inpatient and day case procedures. In UL Hospitals Group, there was an overall decrease in patients waiting of approximately 6% year-on-year as of the end of September 2018 and of those waiting longer than 12 months for an inpatient/day case procedure, the decrease was approximately 34%.
In relation to outpatients, there was an overall increase of 1% (from 39,498 to 39,808) in persons waiting for an appointment over the 12-month period. Those waiting longer than 12 months rose by 14% over the same period, from 11,245 to 12,855. These numbers should be seen in the context of over 216,000 outpatient attendances across the Group in 2017.
UL Hospitals Group notes the increased allocation to the National Treatment Purchase Fund in 2019 and looks forward to the announcement of the Outpatient Action Plan which is being finalised by the HSE, the NTPF and the Department of Health. This plan is focused on improving overall use of resources to tackle long outpatient waiting times and to ensure more timely access to treatment and care for patients.
All patients who are waiting for appointments are prioritised according to clinical need with urgent cases being the highest priority. Beyond this, UL Hospitals Group will continue to focus on seeing and treating those who have been waiting the longest.
Among the reasons for the overall increase for the Group is the significant growth in demand; an increase in the number of urgent referrals in some specialties, such as ENT and Orthopaedics, and a shortage of consultants in other specialties. A new consultant surgeon in ENT will take up a post within the Group in the coming weeks and we will shortly be commencing interviews for two new consultant orthopaedic surgeons.
In 2018, a particular focus is being placed on the validation of outpatient waiting lists by UL Hospitals Group in line with national plans to address wait times for patients. As part of the validation process, we have been contacting all patients waiting over 6 months to see if they wish to remain on the waiting list. The purpose of this exercise is to ensure that existing resources are optimised and that we improve overall access times for patients. We would expect to see an improvement in the number of patients waiting extended periods of time as a result of this exercise.
