All in all some 28,273 are waiting across all age categories, according to the HSE’s latest figures. But it is youngest age cohort where there are the longest lists and the longest waiting times.
Cork and Kerry are acutely affected as the two counties alone make up over half the number of child and teen long waiters with 5,168 on the list for more than a year.
Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Primary Care, John Brassil TD says these figures are “yet another example” of the HSE’s and Government’s “inability to keep up with clear clinical demand for treatment”.
The Kerry-based TD says: “This is yet more proof of a health service that simply doesn’t have the capacity to treat the people it should be treating.What these figures represent is a failure of planning and resourcing.
“One in three on the list is waiting over a year. It is simply unacceptable that the sight of so many young people should be put at risk with such long waiting times.
“This is yet another waiting list in our health service that requires urgent action to reduce waiting times.
Deputy Brassil also pointed out that this is not the full extent of the story on ophthalmology waiting lists. “These are just the numbers waiting for a primary care appointment,” he says. “The most recent hospital waiting time figures from the National Treatment Purchase Fund show that some 37,402 are waiting for an outpatient appointment with an ophthalmologist with 11,275 waiting over a year.
“More than 13,000 also need operations and some 3,600 of them are also waiting a year plus.
“A consultant ophthalmic surgeon at the Mater Hospital earlier this year called those NTPF waiting list figures a ‘hidden scandal’. The fact that there is also another list in primary care, with a further 28,000 on it, compounds that scandal.
“What is Minister Harris going to do about these growing lists? The Government has been silent for far too long.”