Monthly waiting list figures - 13 October 2023

New hospital waiting list figures published today by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) show that progress is being made on waiting list reduction across OPD, IPDC and GI Scope waiting lists and particularly on Sláintecare waiting times in September.

We now have 491,876 people on the Active Waiting Lists (inpatient / day case, GI Scopes and outpatients) waiting longer than the Sláintecare maximum wait times.

As at the end of September 2023:

• 50,148 people are currently exceeding the 12-week inpatient / day case (IPDC) target which is a 1.9% decrease compared to the end of August
• 9,845 people are exceeding the 12-week GI Scope target which is an 8.6% decrease compared to the end of August
• 431,883 people are exceeding the 10-week outpatient (OPD) target, which is a 1% decrease compared to the end of August

This progress is even more remarkable given the challenging backdrop, in common with health services across Europe, of continuing significantly higher additions to waiting lists than projected.

The total number of patients treated/removed from the OPD, IPDC and GI Scope waiting lists during the first eight months was 1,128,190, which was c.51k (c.4.7%) higher than targeted, while additions to waiting lists in the same period were 1,146,366 which was c.81k (c.7.6%) higher than projected. Additions to waiting lists in the same period were also 155k (c.15.7%) higher than in the same period in 2022 and 197k (c.20.7%) higher than the same period in 2019 (which was pre-pandemic). The Health Service Executive (HSE) and other health services attribute higher than anticipated additions to waiting lists to several factors, including post-pandemic pent-up demand.

The latest hospital activity report published monthly by the HSE is now available online. This gives regular insight into acute activity levels, with millions of patients being seen and treated annually within our hospital system alone.

The health service is treating significantly more patients. For the most recently available 12 months of data, there were 3.5 million outpatient and c.1.8 million inpatient / day case attendances. In addition to this planned (‘scheduled’) care, our hospital system also treated c.1.7 million patients during this same period in emergency (‘unscheduled’) care, which represents an 11% increase on 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels and reflects the ongoing pressure on hospitals and increased Emergency Department (ED) attendances, particularly amongst older people.

Such pressures have had the expected knock-on impact on scheduled care in many of our hospitals in the first half of this year, which has resulted in some waiting lists temporarily increasing. However, there are many examples of individual hospitals delivering significant improvements in waiting times, despite such challenges.

For example, in the last year, Louth County Hospital now has no patients waiting over 15 months for an OPD appointment, Galway University Hospitals has reduced the number of patients waiting over 9 months for colonoscopy or OGD procedures by 93%, from 246 to 16 and University Hospital Kerry now has no patients waiting over 9 months for an IPDC procedure.

With the funding from Budget 2024, we are taking the next steps in the multi-annual approach towards achieving the vision of a world-class public healthcare system in which everyone has timely and transparent access to high-quality scheduled care, where and when they need it, in line with Sláintecare reforms.

The 2017 Houses of the Oireachtas Sláintecare report recommended maximum wait times of no more than 12 weeks for an inpatient / day case (IPDC) procedure or GI Scope and 10 weeks for a new outpatient (OPD) appointment.

The publication of monthly waiting list and activity figures by the NTPF and the HSE follows the launch of the 2023 Waiting List Action Plan on 7 March by the Minister for Health. The 2023 Plan continues the multi-annual approach to addressing waiting lists that commenced in Q4 2021 and details 30 actions focused on delivering capacity, reforming scheduled care, and enabling scheduled care reform. The 2023 Plan will fund the HSE and NTPF to reduce waiting lists by a further 10% this year as well as continuing to significantly reduce waiting times towards the Sláintecare recommended targets.