The latest hospital waiting list figures are further evidence that the health system is failing patients particularly those with no private health cover.
That's according to the Irish Patients Association, its comments come as figures reveal almost 902,000 people are on some form of hospital waiting list.
Nearly 80,000 people are waiting for an inpatient or day case treatment.
Stephen McMahon of the Irish Patents Association says those without private healthcare insurance are losing out the most:
"The reality is that for private patients, they hardly experience any waiting list and for public patients one out of every two people that don't have health insurance or on some public waiting list or other, so in one half the population are thanking God they've got insurance, and the other half are praying to get it."
