Nearly 50,000 people are waiting for hospital treatment at University Hospital Waterford (UHW).
The figures have been released by the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, which is warning that investment in hospital capacity is crucial to beating the backlog.
The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has warned of the excessively long waiting times, which are some of the largest in the country.
This, they say, is despite very significant efforts by local management and hospital consultants to reduce waiting times through National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) initiatives.
The latest figures confirm that there are 43,558 people awaiting an outpatient appointment, with 4,502 waiting for inpatient or day-case treatment,
A further 476 patients are on a waiting list for a gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy at UHW. Of these, more than four in 10 (21,394 or 44%) have been waiting for longer than a year for assessment or treatment.
Analysis of the lists shows a 10-fold increase in the number of those waiting longer than a year for an outpatient appointment since December 2015, with almost 20,000 patients now waiting for 12 months or longer for an assessment.
Consultants say that investment in UHW capacity is now critical to providing timely access to care for patients in the area on a sustainable basis, otherwise waiting lists and wait times will continue to grow.
The hospital has seen many of its specialist waiting lists deteriorate severely over the past decade. The IHCA says the severe shortage of Consultants and hospital capacity deficits are the main reasons for the delays in providing care to patients at UHW. More than a quarter (37 or 27%) of the 135 approved permanent Consultant posts at the hospital were vacant or filled on a temporary or agency basis (as at May 2021).*
UHW currently has the largest ENT (10,734) and Dermatology (6,000) outpatient waiting lists in the country and the fourth largest Orthopaedics list of any hospital.
Almost a third (1,342 or 30%) of all those on inpatient/day case waiting lists for all specialities have been waiting for longer than a year for their procedure, which is more than double the number of ‘long waiters’ at the hospital six years ago.
The three specialities of ENT, Orthopaedics and Dermatology account for over half (52%) of all those waiting to be assessed by a Consultant at UHW. There are growing concerns that patients in the area will be at a greater risk of a potential delayed diagnosis of cancer or face months of pain while awaiting hip or knee surgery.
Speaking to Beat News, Professor Rob Landers says the Department of Health cannot hide behind Covid-19 anymore:
"Covid has made it worse over the last couple of years, but from our perspective, it's very important to hold the government and the Department of Health to account, we cannot hide behind Covid as the cause of these waiting lists."
* HSE PQ response to Deputy David Cullinane, 16th September 2021. See https://www.hse.ie/eng/about/personalpq/pq/2021-pq-responses/september-2021/pq-43289-21-david-cullinane.pdf.
