We all know there are long waits for elective care in England. And Scotland. And Wales. And especially Northern Ireland.

So that’s the UK. But what about the Republic of Ireland? According to the latest figures from Sláintecare their waits are pretty long too.

Ireland has two main waiting time targets. Inpatients and daycases should be treated within 12 weeks, and outpatients should be seen within 10 weeks, but in both cases 8 per cent of the waiting list extends beyond 18 months.

Are things getting better or worse? That’s a little more complicated. The Irish government points to a 30 per cent reduction in over 18 month waiters over the past year, which is impressive. But the total size of the outpatient waiting list barely changed, and the inpatient and daycase waiting list grew by 6 per cent over the period.

Which means that the underlying pressures on waiting times have been getting worse, even as the longest waits improved. If this carries on then at some point the two trends will collide, and it will become impossible to improve long waits because of the sheer length of the queue.

Or to look at it another way, if you want to achieve sustained improvements in waiting times then you have to understand and address what causes them. This is very different from the more usual approach, which is to firefight cohorts of long waiters over and over again with waiting list initiatives.

Insource have long experience at the sustainable approach. We have expertise in topics like data management, tracking patients safely and accurately along their pathways, and demand & capacity planning. Together, we help healthcare organisations to tackle the root causes of long waiting times.

If that would come in handy where you are, then why not drop us a line? We’ll be happy to chat, wherever you are.