The failure to recruit hospital consultants has led to more than 47,000 children waiting to see a specialist at the three Dublin children's hospitals, according to Children's Health Ireland (CHI) in Crumlin.
There are an additional ten thousand children waiting for outpatient appointments at other hospitals around the country.
CHI collects data from the state's three paediatric hospitals
The group says waiting lists within these hospitals have increased by over 46 per cent since June 2016, and more than 19,000 children must now wait more than 12 months to see a specialist.
CHI is calling on members of the public, patients and other stakeholders to follow the campaign and add their voices via Twitter using the hashtag #CareCantWait.
Rheumatologist Laura Durcan is vice-president of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association and says it is important to remember there are worried children and families behind the figures
"Behind every child who is sitting on a waiting list are worried parents, worried families," she said.
"Over the last three years we've almost a 50% increase in the number of kids waiting to see a paediatrician for an outpatient appointment. It's getting worse and worse.
"We talk about these numbers and we throw them around and they're huge but each one of those is a little person whose development is being curtailed by something that should be intervened upon in a timely manner "
