Ireland’s waiting times for hospital treatments are way longer than previously reported, according to new research from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).

By measuring the wait between specialist assessment and treatment, rather the time spent on a waiting list, the research found that a large proportion of patients wait for more than 12 months for treatment.

The researchers looked at waiting times for hip replacements, knee replacements and cataract surgery.

Almost a quarter of patients waiting for knee replacement had to wait for more than a year, compared to 17% of those having a hip replacement or cataract surgery.

A new method to gauge waiting times was developed using data from the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) and OECD health statistics, and calculated the number of days a patient had spent on a waiting list before hospital admission.

ESRI recorded the complete waiting time for public patients who had been treated, and compared it to the waiting times for patients still on the list.

It revealed that Ireland compares less favourably with other OECD countries, with the third longest median waiting time out of 17 countries.

The median waiting time is 182 days which is above the OECD average of 116 days.

The proportion of patients in Ireland, who were admitted for treatment in 2018, and who waited longer than three months for treatment, was 79%, compared to the OECD average of 52%.

Ireland’s current reporting system for publicly-funded elective hospital treatments measures how long someone has so far been on a waiting list, rather than the total time they wait for treatment.

It also says Ireland’s relatively young age profile means that demand for hospital services will likely increase in future.

Read the full report HERE.