A severe shortage of specialists is the elephant in the room when it comes to clearing patient backlogs for surgery and hospital appointments.
That's according to the Association of Salaried Medical Professionals.
The Health Minister's unveiled what he calls a 'high powered taskforce' that has until September to come up with a national plan to clear the growing waitlist of people needing treatment.
There's now 27,000 people who been waiting more than four months for their first specialist appointment.
Covid's being blamed for the pile up and if nothing changes it could take up to five years to clear the list.
Sarah Dalton from the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists talks to Lisa Owen.
