Ireland’s health service failed to meet its goal of cutting the number of patients on hospital waiting lists for longer than target times to 50 per cent last year, new figures show.
On Friday, the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) published the latest hospital waiting-list figures for December 2025.
There were 753,763 patients on a hospital waiting list at the end of the year, the vast majority (611,987) waiting for an outpatient appointment.
A total of 107,181 patients were waiting for an appointment for their inpatient or day-case treatment and 34,595 patients were waiting to receive an appointment for a GI (gastrointestinal) endoscopy.
A further 42,033 patients are classified as suspended, meaning they are temporarily unfit or unable to attend due to clinical, personal or social reasons.
The Government’s waiting-list action plan pledged to have 50 per cent of patients waiting less than Sláintecare wait time targets by the end of 2025.
The 2017 Sláintecare report, which was aimed at overhauling the health service, recommended maximum wait times of no more than 12 weeks for an inpatient/day case procedure or GI scope, and 10 weeks for a new outpatient appointment.
However, December’s figures show 64 per cent of patients on a hospital waiting list were waiting longer than these target times.
This was highest among patients waiting for an outpatient appointment, of whom 68.2 per cent, or 417,663, were waiting longer than the target times.
The waiting-list action plan also pledged to increase the proportion of outpatients waiting less than 12 months to 90 per cent by the end of 2025.
The December figures show the health service was just shy of this goal, with 84 per cent of these patients waiting less than a year.
In a statement, the Department of Health said there was an increase in waiting-list volumes in the early part of last year due to the winter surge in demand for unscheduled and emergency care, and elevated levels of respiratory illness circulating.
“However, increases in waiting-list volumes continued through most of 2025, stabilising towards the end of the year with reductions in the total waiting list volumes since October evident,” the department stated.
“There have also been improvements in how long patients have been waiting across lists in the same period. Increased outpatient activity will naturally increase referrals to inpatient or day-case waiting lists, and while the number of patients on those lists has increased, the length of time they are waiting has improved.”
The department said there are “signs of progress” but it will “continue to drive improvements in waiting list performance” through engagement with the Health Service Executive and the NTPF.