THE number of public patients waiting for an out-patient appointment in the Mid-West increased by 18.5% over a three-year period, new figures have revealed.

Like all hospital groups, chief clinical director, Professor Brian Lenehan acknowledged the UL Hospitals’ Group saw an increase in its out-patient waiting list (OPD) from 46,675 in 2019 to 55,350 in 2021 due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The UL Hospitals’ Group represents about 9% of all healthcare activity in the country and the current waiting list is reflective of that.”

In an online media briefing, he said there was a 19.5% increase in the number of patients awaiting OPD first consultation between 2019 and 2020 of more than 9,000 patients.

The biggest effect on waiting lists can be seen for patients waiting 18 months or longer for their first out-patients clinic visit due to the reduction in the number of clinics due to Covid-19 outbreaks and social distancing.

He said the focus for 2022 is to reduce patients waiting 18 months or longer through a number of initiatives.

In 2019, there were almost 218,000 OPD attendances in the Mid-West, which fell to 174,036 in 2020 and increased to 183,855 appointments in 2021.

He said there was a drop in new OPD attendances in 2020 and 2021 and in review attendances, which totaled a combined fall of 15.6% or more than 77,000 attendances that were in essence lost directly and indirectly due to Covid-19 activity across the hospital group.

OPD attendances fell in all sites apart from University Maternity Hospital Limerick, which saw a 15% increase in activity from 21656 in 2019 to 2,002 in 2021.

He said it is hoped to return to the 2019 levels of activity as the group emerges from the latest wave of the pandemic. In 2020, 24.4% of patients had their first consultation virtually and this fell slightly to 22.1% a year later.

This proved to be very beneficial and will continue to be a strategy of the group’s future healthcare strategy.

He said a number of successful waiting lists initiatives in 2020 and 2021 tackled the group’s largest and longest waiting lists, with areas like orthopaedics, dermatology, maxillo-facial and rheumatology, pain relief and geriatric medicine experiencing a significant reduction.

“The key drivers to waiting list improvements in 2021 included the recruitment of extra consultants, non-consultant hospital doctors, advanced nurse practitioners, clinical specialists, nurses, physiotherapists and clinical staff grades.”

Using National Purchase Treatment Fund funding, an extra 4,435 were seen that would not have been seen in their services.

Last year, the group embraced Advanced Clinical Prioritisation strategy where an extra 5,657 patients waiting for 18 months or more were prioritised for a consultation by a consultant, registrar or advanced nurse practitioner. He confirmed NPT funding and ACP will continue to be used to tackle OPD waiting lists this year.

Meanwhile, the HSE has confirmed there were 126 Clare day case in-patients waiting for cataracts, 43 for hip and 27 last December in response to a Dáil question tabled by Deputy Michael McNamara. This compares to 231 Limerick day case in-patients for cataract operations, 74 for hip and 57 for knee.

The Independent Deputy requested a breakdown of the number of people waiting for hip, knee and cataract surgery in the Mid-West.

Deputy McNamara said Clare patients are frequently waiting long periods of time for vital hip, knee and cataract operations.

By Dan Danaher