Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 25 Oct 2001

Vol. 543 No. 1

Written Answers. - Hospital Waiting Lists.

Bernard J. Durkan

Question:

31 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Health and Children the total numbers on hospital waiting lists in respect of the various elective procedures throughout the country; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25687/01]

Bernard J. Durkan

Question:

185 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Health and Children the degree to which waiting lists have been reduced or increased in the past 12 months in respect of the major surgical requirements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25813/01]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Martin)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 31 and 185 together.

Dedicated funding of £74.57 million or 94.68 million was made available to health agencies between 1997 and 2000 to enable hospitals to carry out waiting list procedures and £34.5 million or 43.8 million has been allocated under the waiting list initiative in 2001.

The number of people on public hospital waiting lists in June 2001, the latest date for which figures are available, was 26,659. This figure represents a decrease of 5,192, or 16% on the comparable figure for June 2000. The number of adults waiting for more than 12 months for treatment and the number of children waiting more than six months for treatment in the target specialties have both fallen by 20% in the same period. Reductions in waiting lists have been achieved across each of the eight health board regions in the period June 2000 to June 2001. The following table gives examples of some of the reductions that have been achieved.

Specialty	Number waiting at30 June 2000	Number waiting at30 June 2001	Decrease
Cardiac Surgery	868	420	448
ENT	7,061	4,940	2,121
Ophthalmology	3,718	2,855	863
Orthopaedics	4,964	4,264	700

These figures show that the number of patients waiting for cardiac surgery decreased by 52% during the period June 2000 to June 2001, the number waiting for ENT decreased by 30%, the number waiting for ophthalmology decreased by 23% and the number waiting for orthopaedic operations decreased by 14% during the same period.

Hospital waiting lists must be viewed against the background of a hospital system which discharged some 870,000 in-patients in 2000. The number of people currently on hospital in-patient waiting lists represents just 3% of all in-patient discharges in 2000. I will continue to focus on waiting lists and waiting times in order to ensure that services are available and accessible to those who need them.

The in-patient waiting list for hospital procedures for all specialties, as at the 30 June 2001, the latest date for which figures are available and in the format collected by my Department, are being communicated separately to the Deputy.