Hospitals’ “scheduled care performance” was described as “concerning” at a joint Department of Health/HSE meeting in September.
According to minutes of the Sláintecare programme board, members discussed waiting list reduction and reform. The board is co-chaired by the Secretary-General of the Department and the CEO of the HSE and reports to the Minister for Health.
Members noted that scheduled care performance during 2025 was “concerning”. The meeting heard that figures for late August 2025 showed the number of patients on hospital waiting lists had increased.
As of the end of August 2025, there were almost 755,000 patients on the active hospital waiting list. This represented an increase of approximately 12 per cent since the end of 2024, the meeting was told.
A Department of Health spokesperson told the Medical Independent the Government acknowledged that many patients were waiting too long for hospital appointments and treatments. The Government was “conscious of the burden that this places on patients and their families”.
The multi-annual waiting list action plan approach was initiated in September 2021 to sustainably reduce and reform hospital waiting lists and waiting times.
“The health service has seen significant progress in reducing the length of time patients are waiting under the multi-annual action plan approach, including a reduction of circa 56 per cent or circa 159,000 fewer patients waiting over 12 months from September 2021 to the end of November 2025.”
The spokesperson noted that in the same period, there was an improvement of circa 45 per cent or 5.5 months in the weighted average wait time for patients across waiting lists.
“Increases in waiting list volumes during 2025 stabilised towards the end of the year, and the most recent figures available to the end of November, indicate progress in terms of the number of patients waiting and how long they are waiting.”
The spokesperson said it is anticipated that these improvements will continue. The Department “will continue to engage with the HSE and the National Treatment Purchase Fund to ensure that this progress is maintained and improved upon”.
The roll-out of a network of surgical hubs and the longer-term plan for elective-only hospitals would also help improve access to care, they added.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.