Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 February 2026
942. Deputy Johnny Guirke asked the Minister for Health the number of persons who were waiting for diagnostic imaging in Q4 2025 by imaging type (e.g. CT, MRI, CT, VUS) nationally, and by hospital, in tabular form. [14134/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraWaiting times for radiology and diagnostic services have been recognised as an issue for some time. This Government is committed to the implementation of the 2017 Sláintecare Report, which includes a maximum waiting time target of 10 days for a diagnostic test.
The roll out of National digital platforms such as the National Integrated Medical Imaging System (NIMIS) and the National Laboratory Information System (MedLIS) are reducing duplication, improving diagnostic accuracy, and enabling secure, rapid information sharing across all public hospitals. In 2026, the use of digital diagnostic tools will be further expanded under the Productivity and Savings Taskforce Action Plan to increase the number of diagnostic scans, alongside measures to improve the utilisation of diagnostic equipment supporting increased diagnostic capacity.
The NTPF is working to support access to radiology and in October 2024 it published a National Radiology Diagnostic Waiting List Management Protocol. As well as ensuring that patients seeking access to Radiology Diagnostic services are administratively managed in a safe, timely, fair, and equitable manner whilst waiting, the protocol will facilitate improved data collection and reporting about patients on Radiology Diagnostic waiting lists.
In the interim, the information that is currently being collected as part of a pilot project is being tested and validated at hospital, hospital region and national level and as such should not be used/reported without the context of the caveats set out below:
• Data is subject to inclusions and exclusions which are documented in the Data Profile Document. This document is available from Acute Operations and has been circulated to all Hospital Regions.
• Data contains urgent, routine and surveillance/planned activity which is currently not broken down in detail, as such this includes surveillance/planned activity which may not be exceeding planned date.
• Data is still undergoing validation at Hospital and Hospital Region level. Data does not take into account local nuances at site level (Site profile developed to support understanding of same).
• The purpose of this aggregate data is to provide a National Level overview of the number of patients waiting for modalities of CT, MRI and Ultrasound.
• This report is not intended to be used for the active management of hospital diagnostics waiting list, local reports and mechanisms should continue to be used for the management of diagnostics waiting lists at hospital level.
The NTPF provides my Department with quarterly reports which set out waiting list data for CT, MRI and Ultrasound by hospital and time band.
The most recent report available for the end of Quarter 4 2025, which is attached, indicates there was a total of 264,768 patients reported on the waiting list, this represents all outpatients waiting, urgent, semi urgent, routine and planned/surveillance (where diagnostic access is planned at particular time intervals).
The NTPF has advised my Department, that for Quarter 4 2025 they did not receive data from St Vincent’s Hospital or St Michael's Hospital as both hospitals were in the process of migrating their records to the NIMIS system. Further, no data was received from Bantry General Hospital, Mallow General Hospital, and Cork University Hospital due to system upgrades.
