Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 11 Dec 1991

Vol. 414 No. 5

Written Answers. - Hospital Out-Patient Waiting List.

Richard Bruton

Question:

94 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Health if she will outline the number of persons in each health board who have been referred by general practitioner but have yet to be assessed by a consultant; and if she will classify those waiting by clinical department and further outline the average waiting time.

Minister for Health (Mrs. O'Rourke)

The information in the format sought by the Deputy is not available to my Department. As I indicated to the House recently, I am concerned to ensure that action is taken to tackle the most pressing problems in this area.

As a first step, I consider it vital that accurate and reliable data is available to my Department from all the agencies concerned. In this context, the Deputy will be aware that the Dublin Hospital Initiative Group, under the chairmanship of Professor David Kennedy, addressed the whole question of the effective organisation and delivery of out-patient services. The group, in their recently published report, recommended, inter alia, that a number of important steps should be taken as follows:

Each hospital should immediately undertake a systematic review of their out-patient services, focussing on patient need and the manner in which the service is provied.

Each hospital should immediately establish, where it does not already exist, and out-patient services group, representative of medical, nursing and administrative staff, to assist in the co-ordination and day-to-day operation of out-patient services and to devise strategies to tackle key problems.

The appropriate method of organising out-patient clinics should be through specific rather than block booking of patients.

Booking times and intervals should be reviewed and measured regularly by the out-patient services group as a key indicator of the performance of the service. Such information should be brought to the attention of individual consultants on a regular basis.

Consultants should be notified regularly of the average waiting time for a routine appointment in their clinics. Furthermore, in order to minimise the disruption caused by non-attenders at clinics, each consultant's list should be regularly validated where patients are waiting six months or more for a first appointment.

This group have recently been re-convened and part of their new remit is to pursue the implementation of the recommendations in relation to out-patient services in the Dublin hospitals. In addition, health boards and hospital authorities in the area outside of Dublin have been asked by my Department to consider the good practice recommendations contained in the report and to report back to my Department on their plans for the implemenation of the recommendations, including those in relation to out-patient services.