Monthly waiting list figures - January 2024

New hospital waiting list figures published today by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) show the continued progress over the past year, through the multi-annual action plan approach, in addressing increasing waiting lists and long wait times.

Since the pandemic peaks there has been a c.25% reduction in the number of people waiting longer than the Sláintecare targets, which equates to nearly 155,000 people. The total waiting list exceeding the 10- and 12-week Sláintecare targets at the end of January 2024 was 472,628 which is an 8% (42,655) decrease since the end of February 2023 (when the NTPF first began publishing monthly figures on Sláintecare wait times). The total number of patients waiting within the Sláintecare targets at the end of January 2024 was 206,619, a decrease of 3% since December 2023.

In the last year, since January 2023, the total waiting list has decreased by -18,646 (-3%). As of the end of January, there were 679,247 patients on the active hospital waiting lists. Since January 2023, the outpatient (OPD) waiting list has decreased by -20,979 (-4%), the inpatient / day case (IPDC) waiting list has increased by 2,811 (+3%) and the year-on-year comparison at the end of January 2024 shows that the GI Scopes waiting list decreased by -478 (-2%).

The month of January is traditionally one when limited elective care is delivered due to the surge in demand for unscheduled care post-Christmas and because of high levels of respiratory illness circulating. Accordingly, we would expect to see waiting lists for elective care trend upwards at this time.

As at the end of January 2024:

• 52,718 people are exceeding the 12-week IPDC target which is a 5% increase compared to the end of December 2023
• 10,020 people are exceeding the 12-week GI Scope target which is a 15% increase compared to the end of December 2023
• 409,890 people are exceeding the 10-week OPD target, which is an increase of 3% compared to the end of December 2023

Due to significant data gaps because of current industrial action, the Health Service Executive (HSE) advised that the publication of the February activity update covering the period from November 2022 up to October 2023 has been postponed. The report provides regular insight into acute activity levels, with millions of patients being seen and treated annually within our hospital system alone. For the most recently available 12 months of data, there were c.3.5 million outpatient and c.1.8 million inpatient / day case attendances.

In addition to this planned (‘scheduled’) care, our hospital system also treated c.1.6 million patients during this same period in emergency (‘unscheduled’) care, which represents a c.8% increase on 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels and reflects the ongoing pressure on hospitals and increased Emergency Department (ED) attendances, particularly amongst older people.

Despite the significant challenges from the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, emergency department pressures and other operational factors, including recruitment, our hospitals have delivered improvements which are making a real difference to patients. Many individual hospitals have delivered impressive reductions in both their waiting lists and waiting times. The HSE is currently working to replicate this positive performance across the entire hospital system.

For example, over the past year, Our Lady’s Hospital Navan has reduced the number of patients waiting over 15 months for OPD appointments by 64% from 1,417 to 516. Additionally, Midland Regional Hospital Mullingar has reduced the number of patients waiting over 9 months for an IPDC procedure by 66% from 173 to 59 and Galway University Hospital has reduced the number of patients waiting over 13 weeks for colonoscopy or OesophagoGastroDuodenoscopy (OGD) procedures by 60% from 827 to 328.

For 2024, a total funding package of €407 million is being allocated to tackle waiting lists with €332 million of this being allocated to the 2024 Waiting List Action Plan and the remaining €75 million being targeted at various measures to alleviate community/primary care waiting lists.

The funding will encompass core HSE activity, additionality provided through both the NTPF and the HSE, as well as progressing new service developments to further reform elective care. This will facilitate the next steps in the multi-annual approach towards achieving timely and transparent access to high-quality scheduled care for everyone, where and when they need it, in line with Sláintecare reforms.

The latest hospital activity report published monthly by the HSE is now available online.