There’s been a 62% rise in the number of people waiting over a year and a half for appointments at the region’s main hospital in the past year.
New figures show there were over 4,000 people on waiting lists for 18 months at University Hospital Limerick at the end of November, up from just over 1,500 in the same month last year.
Ennis General Hospital has also seen a rise in numbers as Clare FM’s James Mulhall reports:
Figures just released by the National Treatment Fund show 32,916 patients were waiting for in patient or outpatient appointments at University Hospital Limerick at the end of last month, a rise of 724 on October’s figure.
Of those, just over 4,000 had been waiting for more than 18 months for their appointments, which represents a rise of 62% on the same time last year.
There were 1,120 people waiting for ophthalmology appointments alone, and 542 for ear, nose and throat.
At Ennis General Hospital the numbers waiting on inpatient or outpatient appointments rose by 116 to 2,139 in the space of a month, with 114 were waiting a year and a half.
That represents a rise of 4 on November 2016.
