Some 5,000 people have been waiting five years or more for a medical appointment, new figures have revealed. 

Around 900,000 people are on some form of hospital waiting list - of whom 4,929 were still waiting for their first outpatient consultation more than half a decade after being referred. 

A further 303 have been waiting that length of time for an inpatient or day-case procedure.

It is a situation that Donegal GP Ciaran Ó Fearraigh says is completely unacceptable: 

“Expecting anybody to wait over five years for healthcare just doesn’t make any sense,” he told Newstalk. 

“And it just shows us what we on the ground as GPs see all the time - that people are waiting far in excess of what anybody would consider a reasonable period of time for necessary healthcare.” 

He added that such delays were putting patients’ health at risk: 

“In the most extreme situation people are waiting for outpatient care and maybe have a delayed diagnosis of a serious condition that wasn’t picked up because they were waiting so long,” he explained. 

Galway University Hospital has the worst record in the country with 793 people still waiting for treatment after five; Tallaght University Hospital is not far behind with 766 patients. 

2E495PD Doctor Wearing Protective Face Mask, Medical Person with Protection Equipment in a Quarantined Hospital Against COVID-19 Pandemic

Earlier this year Health Minister Stephen Donnelly announced a €350 million Waiting List Action Plan to address the problem of delayed access to healthcare:

“We know, the number of people on waiting lists was already too high before the pandemic and now, following months of disruption to services, there are over 730,000 waiting for care in Ireland,” Minister Donnelly said as he launched the plan.

"This Plan allocates €350 million to the HSE and NTPF to reduce waiting lists by 18 percent this year which will bring the number of people waiting to their lowest point in five years.”

Areas of particular focus include cataracts, hip and knee replacements, as well as skin lesions.

Main image: A doctor examines the patient on the table.