I propose to take Questions Nos. 168, 169 and 171 together.
Responsibility for management and monitoring of outpatient waiting lists, including orthopaedic outpatient waiting lists, rests with individual hospitals and health boards. It is a matter for each hospital to prioritise its services based on patient need and use its available resources to best effect to ensure that patient services are delivered efficiently and effectively. Figures on the number of persons waiting for an outpatient appointment with a consultant are not collected by my Department. However, I intend to raise with the national treatment purchase fund, NTPF, the question of how we might begin to make progress in relation to outpatient appointments in 2005.
In accordance with health strategy objectives, the Government's immediate focus is on the reduction of waiting lists and waiting times for inpatients and day case treatments in acute hospitals. This is being particularly facilitated by the NTPF.