The time has come to establish a special task force to deal with hospital waiting lists.
That's according to the Irish Patients' Association which says the length of time people are waiting to see a consultant prior to having an operation is totally unacceptable.
In it's report for July, patients at Letterkenny are waiting 11.7 months to see a consultant, while at Mullingar and Cork University Hospital, the waiting time is an average of 11 months.
Stephen McMahon of the Irish Patients' Association, says the culture by which people seeking help are being treated, needs to change.
"There's something wrong in the culture that someone can sit down after the patient and say, I'll give you an appointment for 2022 or 2023 or 2024 and not realize that they also have a duty of care to their patients to ensure that at least that they can be treated in the hospital that under the European cross border directive, that they will be facilitated to have their operations or care."
