BYCATRIONA GALLEN

LETTERKENNY General Hospital has the longest waiting list in the country, according to recent figures released by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF).

There are 1,138 people currently on the surgical waiting list at Letterkenny General hospital for more than a year. This puts it at the top of the list ahead of Tallaght (485) and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda (456). Around a quarter of the 4,502 patients in Ireland awaiting surgical procedure for more than a year are now based at LGH. Most of them are awaiting general surgery.

CEO of the Fund, Pat O'Byrne, said substantial progress had been made in reducing waiting times but there were still too many people waiting "unacceptably and unnecessarily long" times for operations at certain hospitals.

A spokesperson for the HSE West said figures on the waiting list at Letterkenny hospital were high because quite a number of people chose to stay on the list and be treated in their own area.

ELIGIBLE

Letterkenny General Hospital provide the waiting list numbers and case details to the NTPF who in turn contact the patients who qualify for NTPF treatment directly.

"The hospital has also been contacting patients routinely to inform them about their eligibility for NTPF, however some people wish to remain on the waiting list for LGH rather than go elsewhere

"Since March, with the opening of the new medical ward, Day Surgery has been able to run at full capacity again, having been reduced due to medical outliers for the past few years. This will allow more patients on the daycase list to be treated in house.

"We expect that all these measures will see a significant reduction in the numbers of long waiters reported over the next three months. We will continue to concentrate efforts on the longest waiters," she said.

INFORMATION

If you are a public patient on a public hospital in-patient or day case waiting list and you have been waiting for over three months for an operation or procedure you may qualify for this scheme. For further information please call lo-call 1890 720 820.