Tens of thousands of people are waiting more than six months for hospital treatment in this country.
New figures from the National Treatment Purchase fund show almost 30,000 patients were waiting longer than six months for planned hospital care at the end of March.
The Sunday Business Post reports that the waiting lists have spiraled out of control since the coalition took office in March of 2011.
Almost 3,000 of those waiting for care are children - the number of adults waiting longer than six months for inpatient and daycase care has spiralled to 26,838, up from 9,643 when the Fine Gael/Labour government took office in March 2011.
