More than 9,000 patients on waiting lists for procedures at public hospitals in Galway have been bussed to Northern Ireland for assessment and treatment in two private hospitals.

Saolta University Healthcare Group has confirmed an explosion in the numbers of Galway University Hospital (including Merlin Park and UHG) patients being treated north of the border. Only a handful from Portiuncula made the journey.

Ann Cosgrove, Chief Operating Officer with Saolta, said the increase of Galway public patients being treated in private hospitals in Belfast and Derry was due to the contracts for the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) now including a bus service to transport patients to the North.

So far this year, 12,854 patients on waiting lists in GUH were offered referrals for outpatient procedures in Kingsbridge Private Hospital in Belfast and Kingsbridge Private Hospital North West in Derry.

Of these, a total of 9,092 accepted the offer of referral to the north. The majority of them (6,769 outpatients) were referred to Derry and the remainder (2,323) were referred to Belfast.

The Derry referrals included for cardiology, gynaecology, orthopaedics, otolaryngology (ear, nose, throat), plastic surgery and urology.

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