Two hospitals in Galway have been fined a total of €1.2 million over patient waiting times.

University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park Hospital are the first facilities to face fines under a policy which was put in place by the Department of Health's special delivery unit in February.

It's aimed at slashing waiting times for procedures to under 12 months.

But the department has suspended the penalty - on the condition that all waiting time targets are met by September 30th and a programme of support measures is put in place.

At the end of January, UHG and Merlin Park had 546 patients waiting more than 12 months for procedures, according to HSE figures.