Hospital waiting lists still in crisis

Galway University Hospitals continue to remain at or near the top of waiting list tables despite initiatives taken by management to address the issue.

GUH, which includes University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park, took the top spot for having the longest adult in-patient and day case waiting list with 6,462 waiting for treatment in July.

The figures were released nationally by the HSE for July.

However, figures secured by Councillor Pádraig Conneely, a member of the HSE’s Regional Health Forum says the picture is “a lot worse.”

According to local management, there are 27,500 people on the outpatients list and 13,000 on the inpatients list.

But national figures cited much lower levels for GUH – and they still beat Dublin hospitals, Beaumont, the Mater and St James’, to the top spot.

GUH was second on the list after Tullamore for longest child waiting lists for inpatient or day cases at 362 patients.

Councillor Pádraig Conneely, member of the Regional Health Forum, said he was disappointed that despite initiatives taken by the hospital management, the issue of long waiting lists continued.

“It is of course a disgrace that we are on top of this list nationally and it seems to me that things are getting worse, not better. It’s backwards we’re going,” he said.

Last year GUH had the longest outpatients list in Ireland at over 43,000. However s this was reduced to just over 16,000 thanks to proactive measures taken by the hospital to tackle the list.