Written Answers. - Hospital Waiting Lists.
Willie Penrose
Question:
104
Mr. Penrose
asked the
Minister for Health and Children
the progress which has been made towards eliminating hospital lists within two years in regard to the commitment given on 6 May 2002; his views on whether this target will be met; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[17554/03]
Due to the nature of any health care system not all treatments can be made available to patients immediately. Hospital facilities must be used to best effect and it is sometimes necessary to place patients for non-urgent treatments on a waiting list. Therefore, the significant issue from the patients perspective is the length of time spent waiting for treatment.
This Government is strongly committed to reducing waiting lists and particularly waiting times. Our objective is to reduce waiting times significantly in the short term with particular focus on those waiting longest for treatment. The overall target set out in the national health strategy, which was published in December 2001, states that by the end of 2004 all public patients requiring admission to hospital will be scheduled to commence treatment within a maximum of three months of referral from an out-patient department. Intermediate targets have been set to achieve this aim to ensure that the focus is being turned towards those waiting longest for treatment.
The target for 2002 was that no adult would wait longer than 12 months and no child would wait longer than six months to commence treatment. Despite pressures on the acute hospital system and the influence of factors such as the winter vomiting bug, considerable progress has been made by health agencies in reducing waiting times for public patients in 2002. Very significant progress has been made towards the target for 2002 in many hospitals, particularly those outside the eastern region.
There has been a significant reduction in the number of adults waiting longest for in-patient treatment. The total number of adults waiting more than 12 months for in-patient treatment in the nine target specialties has fallen by 30% from 7,402 to 5,209 in the period June to December 2002. The total number of children waiting for more than six months for in-patient treatment has fallen by over 31% between June and December 2002.
While the waiting list initiative will continue to fund additional elective activity, the dedicated national treatment purchase fund, NTPF, is being used to target those waiting longest for treatment, initially concentrating on those adults waiting longer than 12 months for admission to hospital and children waiting longer than six months for admission to hospital. Funding of €43.8 million has been provided in 2003 for the waiting list initiative and some €31 million has been provided for the NTPF. The NTPF has identified sufficient capacity to treat approximately 8,000 patients in 2003. To date approximately 4,500 long waiters have received treatment under the NTPF.
