Major reduction in the number of patients on hospital waiting lists in the Mid-West
Almost 9,000 patients waiting for an outpatient appointment removed from waiting lists at UHL
ALMOST 8,800 patients waiting for an outpatient appointment were removed from waiting lists at University Hospital Limerick last year, 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 in Limerick has halved (52% reduction) with 800 fewer patients waiting for appointments.
At the end of 2023, there were 860 fewer patients waiting for longer than 12 months at Croom Orthopaedic Hospital, representing a 64% reduction.
Reacting to the figures, 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.