The number of patients waiting over a year and a half for an outpatient appointment at the region’s main hospital has increased by half in the space of just a year.
The latest figures from the National Treatment Purchase Fund show that almost 8,300 people were in that situation at the end of last month, up from 5,360 a year previously.
In total, some 36,941 people were waiting various lengths on an outpatient appointment at University Hospital Limerick at the end of last month.
That’s up from just shy of 30,000 this time last year, marking an increase of more than 23%.
In terms of long term waits, 8,267 of those people have been waiting at least 18 months; an annual rise of 54%.
At Ennis General Hospital, these numbers increased by just over 200 to 1,659 in that time.
Waiting times for inpatients, meanwhile, is on a downward trajectory.
At UHL at the end of last month, 1,979 people were awaiting such an appointment; a drop of 26% from the more than 2,500 in this situation a year ago.
The UL Hospitals Group has previously said that such trends are in line with national expectations and reflect national policy.
