Monthly waiting list figures - August 2025

The latest hospital waiting list figures for August published today by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) underline the progress achieved through the multi-annual action plan approach to addressing long wait times for care. The latest hospital activity report published by the Health Service Executive (HSE), demonstrates increased levels of hospital activity in the delivery of scheduled and unscheduled care services.

The health service has seen significant longer-term improvements in waiting times since the multi-annual Waiting List Action Plan (WLAP) approach was initiated in September 2021, including a c. 56% reduction in the number of patients waiting over 12 months. The Waiting List Action Plan (WLAP) 2025 published in February embodies the government’s commitment to reducing waiting times for patients, thereby improving access to hospital care.

The increases in waiting list volumes seen at the beginning of the year were part of an anticipated multi-annual trend arising from the winter surge in demand for unscheduled and emergency care and elevated levels of respiratory illness circulating. These increases have continued to have an impact on waiting lists this year, and a portion of the recent increases relates to the resolution of a reporting issue which resulted in approximately 7,000 patients being added to the OPD waiting list.

The HSE anticipates that the increases in waiting list volumes will stabilise and performance will improve as we progress into the final months of the year. Some positive signs are evident in the most recent figures, and the department will continue to drive improvements in waiting list performance through ongoing engagement with the HSE and NTPF. This will include engagement through the Waiting List Task Force, which is responsible for the governance and implementation of WLAP 2025.

Through the Task Force, specific targeted actions and interventions are being implemented to ensure improved waiting list performance over the remainder of the year. These measures build on and supplement existing actions being progressed, and include expediting full use of the South Dublin Surgical Hub and extending the range of specialties it covers, ensuring a greater number of patients are seen off the Outpatient waiting list by improving the New to Return ratio, and optimising the patient pathway through progressing implementation of centralised referrals and full utilisation of the national policies for patients who did not attend (DNA) and cannot attend (CNA).

Ireland’s acute hospitals are delivering higher levels of activity and treating many more patients than ever before. The latest hospital rolling 12-month activity report published by the HSE gives insight into acute activity levels, with millions of patients being seen and treated annually within our hospital service. The report outlines that there was c. 4 million OPD, and c. 1.93 million IPDC attendances from June 2024 to May 2025. In comparison with the levels of activity delivered in the full year 2023, these figures represent increases of c. 10% for OPD and c.5% for IPDC activity.

In addition to this planned care, our hospitals also treated c. 1.86 million patients during this same period in emergency care, which represents a c. 10% increase on the full year 2023 and reflects the continuing demands on our hospitals. Increased Emergency Department attendances and demand in unscheduled care can result in some cancellations of elective procedures, and the impact this will have on patients is recognised.

While the health service does not wish to see a growth in numbers waiting for care, growth in the number of referrals to our hospital services has a positive aspect as it is indicative of people accessing the services that they need, an increased awareness of services and reflects an expansion of services.

The multi-annual WLAP approach was initiated in September 2021 to sustainably reduce and reform hospital waiting lists and waiting times.

The government is committed to further reduce waiting times, targeting all patients to be seen within the Sláintecare target of 10 weeks for OPD (Outpatient department) and 12 weeks for IPDC (Inpatient / Day Case) and Gastrointestinal (GI) Endoscopy (GI Scopes).

In keeping with this commitment, significant funding of €420 million was allocated to the WLAP 2025, encompassing €190 million for the HSE and €230 million for the NTPF.

The WLAP 2025 published on 12 February by the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill sets out 25 actions under the themes of “Delivering Capacity”, “Enabling Scheduled Care Reform” and “Reforming Scheduled Care”.