Galway hospitals outpatient waiting list close to 35,000

Date Published: 27-Apr-2011

Outpatient waiting lists at Galway’s two main public hospitals continue to swell by more than 300 a week – almost 35,000 people are on waiting lists, greater than a capacity crowd at Pearse Stadium.

The Health Service Executive West’s latest figures show there are 27,344 people on outpatient waiting lists for University Hospital Galway (UHG) and a further 7,455 are on the outpatient waiting list at Merlin Park Hospital.

The combined number on outpatient waiting lists between the two city hospitals was 34,799 in April 2011, a figure described as a “scandal” by the chairperson of the Regional Health Forum West, City Councillor Pádraig Conneely.

This represents an increase of 10,493 – or 43% – in the eight months since September 2010, when the list stood at 24,306.

It is a 51% increase on January of the previous year, when the outpatient waiting list stood at 23,020.

The figures are alarming when it is considered that more than 300 additional patients are being added to the outpatient list every week.

The increase in the numbers on the outpatient list is an “alarming scandal”, said Cllr Conneely.

And the HSE West has conceded that the lists will continue to grow before the situation improves.

In an interview with the Connacht Tribune, Dr David O’Keeffe, Clinical Director, Acute Services and Continuing Care for Galway and Roscommon hospitals, said that an innovative plan to increase the numbers of clinics at UHG, which would have tackled the waiting lists problem, had to be shelved due to staff shortages.

Dr O’Keeffe explained that former Health Minister Mary Harney’s plan last year to reduce numbers within the health service, resulted in 51 personnel taking on the offer of early retirement and early redundancy in the six weeks leading up to Christmas.

It may not sound like a lot, given 3,000 people are employed in UHG, but it has severely hampered the hospital’s ability to treat patients, he said.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.