An Eight-Year Wait For Patients

According to a report in the Irish Times this week, it can take up to eight years for a patient to see a medical consultant in Ireland

The newspaper said that 48 people who attended the outpatient department of Mayo General Hospital this year had been on waiting lists since 1999.

These figures, provided under the Freedom of Information Act, show that hospitals in the West of Ireland have some of the longest waiting times in the country, with some outpatients at University College Hospital in Galway and the Merlin Park Regional hospital having been waiting to see a consultant since 2000.

In other parts of the country, the newspaper reported that people face two to three years of delays to meet face-to-face with a consultant.

More than 139,000 people were on hospital waiting lists at 24 hospitals either last year or earlier this year. Not all hospitals provided data, and it is believed that the true outpatient waiting list figures are much higher than those revealed this week.