Waiting list for appointments at Limerick hospitals soars
THE number of people waiting for their first consultation within the UL Hospitals Group has soared by more than 9,000 since the onset of Covid-19.
Data released this week from Prof Brian Lenehan, the chief clinical director of UL Hospitals Group (ULHG), revealed that there are now 55,977 people on the waiting list across its six hospitals.
And of these, some 20,449 people have been waiting for more than 18 months.
These statistics again show the pressure the health system has been under as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
But Prof Lenehan said: “We would hope to get back to 2019 activity levels and above as we emerge from the latest wave of the pandemic.
“Between 2019 and 2020, we saw a 19.5% increase in the number of patients awaiting their first consultation, just over 9,000 patients. The waiting list numbers have remained static from 2020 to the numbers waiting now in 2022,” he said at a media briefing this week.
In 2019, there were 46,675 people waiting for an outpatient appointment. But by the end of 2020, this number had grown to 55,767 people.
In 2021, it had dropped slightly to 55,350 people. But as of this week, there are 55,977 people on the ULHG’s waiting lists.
Elsewhere, Prof Lenehan revealed that almost a quarter of patients on the hospital’s waiting list had their first outpatient appointment through a computer or telephone screen.
“These have proven extremely beneficial and will continue to be a feature of our scheduled care strategy going forward, particularly with he advanced clinical prioritisation model,” he confirmed to members of the media.