Nearly 18,000 people over the age of 75 have been waiting longer than 18 months for a hospital appointment.

The hospital waiting list figures have been released by the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

In all, nearly 87,000 people over the age of 75 are on hospital waiting lists around the country.

Almost 26,000 of them have been on the hospital waiting lists for over a year.

Nearly 18,000 have been waiting longer than a year-and-a-half.

Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane told Newstalk the situation is a scandal for the health service.

“It is obvious to most people that people of that age need to be seen as quickly as we can possibly get them seen,” he said.”

“So, to have that volume of patients of that age waiting that long is a symptom of what is wrong right across the health service, where we have extremely high wait times and numbers of people waiting.

“To get to a point where we have nearly 1.3 million people on some form of health waiting list is a scandal in and of itself.”

He said more resources are urgently needed.

“These figures are getting worse month on month,” he said.

“If you look at the wait times and the numbers of people waiting for treatment, it is increasing every month and it is increasing every year.

“We don’t seem to be putting in place the resources the capacity and the strategy to actually reduce wait times – and to give hospitals, hospital management and also staff the resources they need.”

Hospitals in Limerick, Galway and Cork have the longest waiting lists for elderly patients, according to the figures.

At Limerick University Hospital, there are 2,520 patients over the age of 75 waiting for treatment – the highest number in the country.

That is followed by 2,286 in Galway University Hospitals, and 1,747 in Cork University Hospital.

There are nearly 8,000 elderly patients on waiting lists at Galway University Hospital.