Drop of over 9,000 patients on hospital waiting lists in Mid-West
ALMOST 8,800 patients waiting for an outpatient appointment were removed from waiting lists at UHL, making 2023 the second year in a row that waiting lists have fallen.
A further 2,000 patients waiting between six and 12 months for an outpatient appointment received care – a 27% reduction.
The outpatient waiting list at St John’s Hospital has halved (52% reduction) with 800 fewer patients waiting.
There are 860 fewer patients waiting longer than 12 months at Croom Orthopaedic Hospital (a 64% reduction).
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly commented: “Throughout 2023 we’ve been tackling waiting lists hospital by hospital and specialty by specialty. Thanks to the enormous efforts of our healthcare workers in hospitals across the Mid-West, we have fewer patients waiting now than we did a year ago. 2023 was the second year in a row that we achieved this progress and I’m determined that fewer patients again in the Mid-West will be waiting at the end of 2024.”
Nationally, the core target of achieving a 10% reduction in the number of patients waiting longer than the agreed Sláintecare times (10/12 weeks) was exceeded in 2023, with an 11% reduction, equating to 57,000 patients.
Last year saw a reduction of almost one third (32%) on those waiting longer than 12 months. This equates to 54,000 patients.
Since the Covid-19 peak the number of patients waiting longer than 12 months have reduced by 60%.
Over 177,000 more patients were removed from acute hospital waiting lists last year compared with 2022. The target of removing approximately 1.66 million patients from waiting lists in 2023 was exceeded by 5%, with around 1.74 million patients removed.
The average outpatient waiting time reduced from 9.7 months to 7.5 months. This represents a 23% reduction in 2023.
“Significant progress was made during 2023 in reducing the length of time people were waiting for care. At the end of December 2023, almost 86% of patients were waiting less than the 2023 National Service Plan maximum wait time targets, which represents an improvement of 6.3% since the end of 2022.
"Without the intervention of the 2023 Waiting List Action Plan, it is estimated that waiting lists would have increased by 54% to almost 1.1 million people,” Mr Donnelly said.
Minister of State and Limerick TD Niall Collins also commented: “I’m very pleased to see the significant progress being made to tackle waiting lists. We now have fewer patients waiting in the Mid-West than a year ago.
"And 2023 was the second year in a row that hospital waiting lists fell. I’m particularly heartened to see almost 8,800 patients waiting over 12 months for an outpatient appointment at UHL in Limerick removed from the waiting list and the outpatient waiting lists at St John’s Hospital halved.”