The national treatment purchase fund was established to identify patients who have been waiting longest for surgical treatment and to arrange treatment for those patients. The NTPF works closely with health boards and individual hospitals to obtain information on patients and the specific surgical procedure required in each case. Currently, the information collected by the NTPF is collected by hospital and specialty rather than by individual consultant.
The NTPF carried out a validation exercise on patients reported to be waiting for surgical treatments. As a result of this exercise it became clear that the number of patients reported to the Department includes those who are not immediately available for treatment or who would be unable to accept an offer of treatment for medical or other reasons. Therefore, the figures reported to the Department overstated the actual position at hospital level.
In collecting and providing data to the NTPF, hospital management depends on the co-operation of individual consultants. To date, the NTPF has treated some 15,000 patients. This could not have been achieved without the co-operation of hospital consultants. It would be fair to say that the NTPF did not receive universal co-operation in the beginning. There were difficulties with James Connolly Memorial Hospital and the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, Dublin, as regards the small number of patients being referred by these hospitals to the NTPF. The NTPF is hopeful of a positive outcome following recent discussions with these hospitals. However, the NTPF is concerned at the very low level of referrals from St. Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin, and the Mid-Western Health Board. If a higher number of patients were referred by both St. Vincent's and the Mid-Western Health Board more patients would have been treated and their respective waiting lists could have been reduced dramatically.
It should be remembered that patients who have been waiting more than six months for treatment can contact the NTPF directly or through their general practitioners to arrange treatment.
When the NTPF initially began to collect information, concerns were raised by some hospitals about patient confidentiality issues. Clarification was sought and received from the Data Protection Commissioner in this regard. In the overall interest of patient care and treatment, as well as on the basis that hospitals collected the patient data for the purpose of patient treatment, the commissioner was of the view that disclosure to the fund is compatible with the purpose for which patients gave the details in the first instance. The commissioner has considered, therefore, that the Data Protection Acts do not prohibit the disclosure by a data controller — the hospital, in this case — of patient data to the treatment fund. Information supplied to the national treatment purchase fund is treated in the strictest confidence.
The fund does not request or retain the medical histories of patients. Medical notes associated with patients are not sought by the fund. It is in the best interest of patient care that details sought by the fund are provided by health boards and hospitals so treatment can be arranged for the patients concerned.
