A record number of more than 718,000 people were on hospital waiting lists at the end of August, according to the latest figures released by the National Treatment Purchase Fund.
This includes 514,585 people waiting for an outpatient appointment and 74,189 waiting for inpatient or day case procedures.
Almost half of those on the outpatient list had been waiting for over six months and over 30,000 patients on the inpatient list had been waiting for over six months.
The total includes more than 48,000 children – one-third of whom had been waiting for over a year.
The figures show that total inpatient and day case treatment lists are down.
The NTPF includes people on the suspended waiting list if their treatment or care is being processed for outsourcing to another hospital, including a private hospital.
