The number of patients on hospital waiting lists rose again in May with more than 564,000 people now waiting for treatment.
Figures from the National Treatment Purchase Fund show there were 478,569 people waiting for outpatient appointments last month and 85,794 waiting for inpatient surgery or day-case procedures.
More than 87,000 patients are also on two unpublished lists collated by the NTPF, bringing the total above 650,000.
The number of outpatients waiting for a hospital appointment has now grown by almost 58,000 since Simon Harris was appointed Minister for Health a year ago.
Some 5,053 extra people were added to the total waiting list figures for outpatient appointments in May. An extra 495 people were added to the inpatient waiting lists.
Some 23,112 people are now waiting for cardiology appointments across the State, including 18,698 on the outpatient lists. There are 4,414 people waiting for inpatient or day-case procedures in cardiology, up slightly from 4,353 in April.
Inpatient cardiology procedures
A total of 211 people have been waiting for inpatient cardiology procedures for 18 months or more. This is up from 175 in April, but the overall numbers waiting for surgery for this length of time remains at about 5 per cent of the total.
There were more than 600 people on the list for outpatient cardiology appointments at the end of May.
There were increases in the numbers waiting on the outpatient lists at some hospitals, while others fell slightly.
At the Children’s University Hospital Temple Street, there were 16,328 children waiting for outpatient appointments at the end of May compared to 16,227 at the end of the previous month.
At Cappagh National Orthopaedic Hospital there were 1,717 people on the outpatient list, up from 1,661 in April.
The numbers waiting on the outpatient list at Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar dropped from 7,570 in April to 7,218 last month.
In Dublin, Beaumont Hospital’s waiting list figures for outpatient procedures were also down slightly at 25,253 compared to 26,092 in April.
Consultant cardiothoracic surgeon Michael Tolan, who said last month that people in need of heart surgery were dying on waiting lists, said that even in poorer countries people were waiting on average 18 weeks as an outpatient.
Deterioration
He told The Irish Times in May the consequences of delay were much greater for cardiac surgery patients than for other groups. After 18 weeks, there was an unacceptable risk of death, deterioration of heart operative mortality, he said.
Mr Tolan met Mr Harris recently on behalf of the Irish Cardiac Society. He was hopeful that something would come out of the meeting but nothing had emerged yet, he said on Thursday.
In response to a parliamentary question last month, Mr Harris said he had discussed with the Cardiac Society possible approaches to reducing waiting times for cardiac surgery patients.
He said he acknowledged that waiting times were often unacceptably long and said he was conscious of the impact of this on people’s lives.
“Reducing waiting times for the longest waiting patients is one of this Government’s key priorities. Consequently, Budget 2017 allocated €20 million to the NTPF, rising to €55 million in 2018,” he said.