Vol. 459 No. 3
21 Mr. Hughes asked the Minister for Health the improvements, if any, he expects to result from the funding being made available for community ophthalmic services; and if he has satisfied himself with the equality of treatment that is available in the health board areas. [18244/95]
(Limerick East): Community ophthalmic services are provided free of charge by health boards to eligible persons. The persons eligible are pre-school and national school children, in respect of defects discovered at child health or school health examinations, and persons in eligibility Category I, medical card holders and their dependants.
Ophthalmic services are provided by health boards through hospitals and ophthalmologists directly employed by the boards or through the adult sight testing scheme. Under this scheme ophthalmologists, ophthalmic medical practitioners and ophthalmic opticians in private practice who have entered into agreement with the boards examine eligible patients in their private practice premises and provide spectacles as appropriate.
This year the health boards will spend over £6 million on the provision of community ophthalmic services. All the boards operate a system which affords priority to applicants with special needs, such as persons with medical conditions, and every effort is made to ensure that urgent cases are processed without delay.
As the Deputy will be aware, I made available an additional £750,000 this year to health boards for the provision of ophthalmic services to adults on their waiting lists. Allocations were made having regard to the information supplied to me by the boards in relation to waiting lists and other relevant factors. The additional moneys I have provided should result in about 15,000 medical card holders being removed from the waiting lists for sight testing services and supply of spectacles. While the provision of this special funding in 1995 will make a significant impact on services for medical card holders I am concerned to ensure that ophthalmic services are provided to medical card holders within a reasonable period of time. To this end my Department will continue to liaise with the health boards and the appropriate professional organisations with a view to developing the services further.
I thank the Minister for his reply. He will be aware that the scheme has a public and private dimension. The public dimension has resulted in substantial waiting lists in seven of the eight health board areas. The private dimension takes the form of an ad hoc scheme whereby health boards may employ private opticians at their discretion to reduce the substantial waiting lists. I am concerned that some health boards seem to opt in or out of this private scheme on an annual basis and fail to provide continuous service to the people within their catchment areas.
Is it possible for the Minister to request that all eight health boards employ private opticians to operate the eye testing scheme? This would mean that equality of service would exist on a nationwide basis.
(Limerick East): My Department will continue to liaise with the health boards to provide the fullest possible service and eliminate waiting lists. The Deputy tabled a question with regard to the waiting lists on a previous occasion. He will be aware that money has been allocated to the health boards, some of it as recently as September last. The Western Health Board, for example, received an allocation of £100,000. As a result, the waiting lists in Counties Mayo and Roscommon have been completely cleared and 50 per cent of the waiting list in County Galway has been cleared. Progress has been made in recent months, but I would like this to be sustained into 1996.
I am delighted with the Minister's answer. I was not aware of that information. I am pleased it has been made available to the House. I tabled this question as a result of information I previously received, which indicated that the period of time spent by people on the Eastern Health Board's waiting list was only three months. This is a tolerable position. However, in many of the other health board areas the length of time was a minimum of 12 months — in certain cases 36 or 38 months. In the Western Health Board area it was 36 months. I understand from the Minister's reply nobody remains on that waiting list as a result of the allocation of £100,000, a very small sum of money. This represents tremendous progress for the publicly funded scheme. The people involved deserve congratulation.
I ask the Minister to continue to monitor this scheme because the level of performance appears to vary quite dramatically on an annual basis. As I have stated, it is the responsibility of the chief executive officers of the health boards to decide whether private opticians will be used. I ask the Minister to monitor this because it is suggested that medical card patients — primarily the elderly — have their eyes tested every two years. He will appreciate that if elderly people do not have their eyes tested regularly, more serious eye conditions may result. Such conditions would absorb considerably more money than the £11 cost of an eye test. Regular eye testing can prevent the further development of serious conditions and prevent further absorption of the Department's resources. Perhaps the Minister's officials might consider the scheme in greater detail——
The Deputy's contribution is overlong.
——to try to achieve the level of public satisfaction which exists in relation to the PRSI-funded scheme.
(Limerick East): I will monitor the situation. The waiting lists were uneven and, as a result, the extra money was allocated on an uneven basis. The Eastern Health Board received £250,000 which reduced its waiting period from eight or nine months to three months. The Midland Health Board was is in a better position and therefore only received £30,000. The Mid-Western Health Board received £50,000 because its waiting list was not as long as others. The North-Eastern Health Board received £85,000; the North-Western Health Board, £75,000; the South-Eastern Health Board, £75,000; the Southern Health Board, £85,000; and the Western Health Board, £100,000.
The west is awake.
The good representatives from the west are responsible.
(Limerick East): Deputy Hughes's original question highlighted the fact that long waiting lists existed in that area. The money was allocated in reverse proportion to match the length of the waiting lists. This process has been effective. I also take the Deputy's point in relation to the social insurance scheme.
Deputy Hughes will be well looked after in Cork on the next occasion he visits.
