4,000 people on hospital waiting lists in the Shannonside region last month

Four thousand people were on hospital waiting lists in the Shannonside region in September. The National Treatment Purchase Fund collects monthly data on the number of people waiting for appointments for procedures in hospitals around the country. Locally, Sligo University Hospital had the most patients waiting at 2,866.

604 were waiting for an appointment at Roscommon University Hospital. While Regional Hospital Mullingar and Portiuncula Hospital had 573 and 561 respectively. The HSE say increases in waiting list volumes seen at the beginning of the year were part of an anticipated multi-annual trend arising from the winter surge in demand for unscheduled and emergency care and elevated levels of respiratory illness circulating.