Patients can be waiting up to eight years to see a consultant in a hospital outpatient clinic, new figures show. The figures obtained by The Irish Timesshow some 48 patients who were waiting to be seen in the outpatient department of Mayo General Hospital earlier this year had been on the waiting list since 1999.
Patients are also waiting to be seen in the outpatients department of Galway's University College Hospital/Merlin Park Regional Hospital since the year 2000.
The new data, supplied under the Freedom of Information Act, also shows more than 139,000 patients were on outpatient waiting lists at 24 hospitals across the State either last year or earlier this year.
Not all hospitals provided details of their outpatient waiting lists so the true figure for the total numbers on outpatient waiting lists in the State would be significantly higher.
The time spent on an outpatient waiting list refers to the length of time a patient has to wait to be seen by a hospital consultant once referred by their GP.
Figures for numbers of patients on outpatient waiting lists and the length of time they have to wait have never been published by the Health Service Executive or the Department of Health. The only waiting list figures traditionally published are those for inpatient waiting lists which detail the length one has to wait for surgery or a procedure once seen by a consultant.
From the data released, hospitals in the western region have among the longest waiting times. The data for the hospitals in Galway and Mayo reflect the position which existed in April 2007.
The patients waiting to be seen for eight years in Mayo are waiting to see specialists in dermatology and urology. The patients waiting for seven years to be seen in Galway are waiting to see a neurologist.
The HSE West pointed out that its outpatient waiting list data was not validated but it hoped to do this in the new year. It also said people on the waiting list for several years would include those who had been contacted and had been offered appointments but had not turned up or not responded.
Information provided shows patients can also be waiting years to be seen in other regions. The longest waiting time for an outpatient appointment last year at Ennis General Hospital and Kerry General Hospital was over four years.
At Cork University Hospital, Limerick Regional Hospital, Sligo General Hospital and Letterkenny General Hospital some patients were waiting for three years or more for an outpatient appointment.
Meanwhile, at the Midland Regional Hospitals at Mullingar, Portlaoise and Tullamore patients can be waiting up to two years for outpatient appointments.
Some patients were also waiting two years for outpatient appointments at Dublin's Beaumont Hospital when the figures were collected there in June last year.
The National Treatment Purchase Fund, which has successfully tackled very long inpatient waiting lists in recent years, began turning its attention to outpatient waiting lists on a pilot basis in 2005.
It paid for 4,500 patients on outpatient waiting lists to be seen privately in 2005, for 6,250 patients to be seen privately in 2006 and for an estimated 10,000 patients to be seen this year. It has also removed around 30,000 other patients from outpatient waiting lists over this period through a validation exercise which found these people no longer needed treatment or had received it elsewhere in the meantime. However lengthy waiting times for outpatient appointments are still a reality.
HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm says targets will be set for the reduction of outpatient waiting lists at all hospitals next year and hospitals will be given incentives to reduce lists.
Fine Gael's health spokesman Dr James Reilly said the figures represented "the secret this Government has been trying to hide from people for a long number of years". It was outrageous, he said, that patients should be waiting many years for a hospital outpatient appointment.