The new health strategy, Quality and Fairness: A Health System for You, which I launched recently provides a framework, inter alia, for a reform of the acute hospital system which will lead to improved access to hospital services for public patients. It also provides for a comprehensive set of actions to be taken to address the issue of waiting lists, and particularly waiting times for public patients.
The strategy places a new focus on waiting times. The targets set out in the strategy are that by the end of 2002, no adult will wait longer than 12 months and no child will wait longer than six months for treatment; that by the end of 2003, no adult will wait longer than six months and no child will wait longer than three months for treatment, and that by the end of 2004 no public patient will wait longer than three months for treatment. Until these targets are achieved, a new dedicated treatment purchase fund will be used for the purpose of purchasing treatment for public patients.
The single most limiting factor for admission to hospital is bed availability. In this context, a comprehensive review of bed capacity needs has been conducted by my Department in conjunction with the Department of Finance and in consultation with the social partners. The review, which has informed the health strategy, has focused primarily on the emerging need to increase bed capacity and to have a strategic framework in place in terms of the number of additional beds required in the short, medium and long-terms. The overall target of the new strategy is that an extra 3,000 beds will be provided over the period to 2011, with 650 beds to be in place by the end of 2002. The next phase of the review will involve an examination and assessment of clinical activity data by specialty.