Press release: Friday 8 August 2025
Monthly waiting list figures – July 2025
The latest hospital waiting list figures for July published today by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) underline the progress achieved through the multi-annual action plan approach to addressing long wait times for care. The latest hospital activity report published by the Health Service Executive (HSE), demonstrates increased levels of hospital activity in the delivery of scheduled and unscheduled care services.
The figures published today, demonstrate continued progress, including in terms of those patients waiting longest. There has been a 1% reduction in the total number of patients waiting over 12 months since this time last year, and a corresponding reduction of 10% in the number waiting over 18 months.
The health service has seen significant longer-term improvements in waiting times since the multi-annual Waiting List Action Plan (WLAP) approach was initiated in September 2021. The Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill published the Waiting List Action Plan (WLAP) 2025 in February. The WLAP 2025 embodies the Government’s commitment to reducing waiting times for patients, thereby, improving access to hospital care.
The increases in waiting list volumes seen in 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. These increases have continued to have an impact on waiting lists this year, and a portion of the recent increases relates to resolution of a reporting issue which resulted in c. 7k patients being added to the OPD waiting list
It is anticipated that the increases in waiting list volumes will stabilise and some positive signs are evident in the most recent figures. Following increases since the end of 2024 in the length of time that patients on lists have been waiting, we are now seeing continued improvement month on month as well as in comparison with the same period last year. The Department will continue to engage with the HSE and NTPF on waiting list performance through the Waiting List Task Force, which is responsible for the governance and implementation of WLAP 2025.
Ireland’s acute hospitals are delivering higher levels of activity and treating many more patients than ever before. The latest hospital rolling 12-month activity report published by the HSE gives insight into acute activity levels, with millions of patients being seen and treated annually within our hospital service. The report outlines that there was c. 4 million OPD, and c. 1.93 million IPDC attendances from May 2024 to April 2025. In comparison with the levels of activity delivered in the full year 2023, these figures represent increases of c. 10% for OPD and c.5% for IPDC activity.
In addition to this planned care, our hospitals also treated c. 1.86 million patients during this same period in emergency care, which represents a c. 10% increase on the full year 2023 and reflects the continuing demands on our hospitals. Increased Emergency Department attendances and demand in unscheduled care can result in some cancellations of elective procedures, and the impact this will have on patients is recognised.
While the health service does not wish to see a growth in numbers waiting for care, growth in the number of referrals to our hospital services has a positive aspect as it is indicative of people accessing the services that they need, an increased awareness of services and reflects an expansion of services.
For 2025, further investment has been secured to continue the multi-annual approach to reduce and reform acute hospital waiting lists. With the 2025 WLAP, the Department of Health, the HSE and the NTPF are taking the next steps in evolving the multi-annual approach towards achieving this government’s vision of a public healthcare service where everyone has timely and transparent access to high-quality scheduled care services, where and when they require them.