Galway Bay fm newsroom - Waiting lists at UHG are up 65 percent since 2015, while lists at Portiuncula Hospital Ballinasloe have increased by over 50 percent.
That's according to the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, which says outpatient lists at hospitals in the Saolta Hospital Group are some of the worst figures in the country.
In July 2015, almost 36,500 patients were on outpatient waiting lists at UHG.
By July of this year, that figure had risen to just shy of 60 thousand - an increase of 64 percent.
During the same time, the waiting lists at Portiuncula Hospital Ballinasloe have also increased by 51 percent - from almost 3 thousand patients to over 4,500.
Overall, across the Saolta Hospital Group, there are now almost 128 thousand people on outpatient waiting lists - and increase of 72 percent since 2015.
The biggest increases by percentage were recorded at Roscommon University Hospital at almost 200 percent, followed by Mayo University Hospital at 162 percent.
The ICHA is warning that the ongoing shortage of hospital consultants across a large number of specialties in the Saolta Hospital Group is a serious issue.
It says the situation is restricting patients from accessing timely, high-quality medical and surgical care, and is contributing massively to the growing waiting lists.
It warns we have a chronic recruitment and retention crisis, with 1 in 5 permanent hospital consultant posts nationwide either vacant or filled on a temporary basis.
