Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 June 2004
44 Ms O. Mitchell asked the Minister for Health and Children the efforts made by his Department to establish the extent of the public waiting list of each consultant; if it is his intention to make such information available to patients and referring general practitioners; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18398/04]
View answerResponsibility for the collection and collation of data on waiting lists and waiting times now rests with the national treatment purchase fund, NTPF. The NTPF is working closely with health boards and individual hospitals to obtain information on patients and the specific surgical procedure required in each case. The information collected by the NTPF is collected by hospital and specialty rather than by individual consultant.
As the NTPF evolves into its new role of collecting and reporting data on waiting lists and waiting times, I anticipate that in the future the fund will have available to it information on the waiting lists of individual consultants. In that event, I expect that this information would be available to general practitioners to aid their decision in referring patients to consultants. The sharing of waiting list data with GPs is in keeping with the commitment given in the health strategy to make such information available.
