Galway Bay FM Newsroom - Hospitals waiting lists across the country have still not recovered from the height of the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, according to new analysis by the Irish Hospital Consultants Association.
The latest National Treatment Purchase Fund figures also show that the total number of people on waiting lists for hospital treatment or assessment by a Consultant has exceeded 900,000 for the first time in seven months.
Almost 902,000 people were on a waiting list for hospital appointments or treatment at the end of May, an increase of 93,500 more people waiting for care compared with May 2020.
The highest waiting lists for inpatient or day case treatment during the entire pandemic were recorded in May 2020, when 86,946 patients were awaiting hospital treatment.
Since the end of May 2020 more than 48,500 people have been added to the outpatient waiting lists at hospitals across the country - an 8% increase.
Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe and Roscommon Hospital has been cited as two that have seen significantly increases in their outpatient and Inpatient waiting lists over that period.
In Roscommon the increase has been significant with 6,979 on the outpatient waiting list last May as compared to 4,670 in May 2020. An increase of 49%.
Meanwhile, Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe has one of the highest increases in waiting lists for inpatient or day case treatment with 621 in May 2022 compared to 429 in May 2020. An increase of 45%.
