Health Minister James Reilly's target of having no-one waiting longer than a year for a hospital outpatient appointment by the end of 2013 is unlikely to be met.

While outpatient waiting list figures for the end of 2013 are not yet available, latest statistics show that there were 60,802 people waiting longer than 12 months for an outpatient consultation at the end of November, making it highly unlikely that these patients would have been seen by the end of last year.

However, the figures do show that between March and November 2013, there was a 41% reduction in the numbers waiting over a year for an outpatient visit, with 103,433 on the 12-month plus waiting list in March.

The latest figures show that the numbers waiting over four years for an outpatient appointment fell from 7,695 in March to 968 in November, while the numbers waiting between three and four years fell from 7,745 to 3,438 in the same period.

Minister Reilly also set a target of having no-one waiting longer than eight months for a hospital procedure by the end of 2013. Latest figures show there were 3,295 waiting for hospital treatment at the end of October.

In a Dail PQ reply to Fianna Fail Health spokesman Billy Kelleher, the HSE said hospitals were currently progressing additional initiatives in order to achieve national wait time targets in EDs, inpatient and outpatient care.

The HSE said it continued to work with hospitals to focus on further reductions in waiting lists in December 2013, when it was expected that the numbers waiting would decrease further.