Since it was established last year, the SDU has been working to unblock access to acute services by improving patient journeys through the system through encouraging hospitals to better manage their use of bed days and staffing resources and by streamlining waiting lists, including GP referrals. The initial focus for the SDU's Scheduled Care Team has been on waiting times for in-patient and daycase elective surgery, with the targets that no adult should be waiting more than nine months for inpatient and day case treatments and no child longer than 20 weeks.
The measures being taken are working; by the end of September the number of adults waiting more than nine months had fallen by more than 90% on the figure at the start of the year (4678 in Jan down to 415 in September) while the number of children waiting longer than 20 weeks nationally was down to 276 from 1,844 at the start of the year.
Improving access to outpatient services is the next priority, which is why for the first time, clear and comprehensive data on this problem is being reported. The data being collected will allow the SDU and NTPF to target their resources towards those patients who are waiting longest and ensure that they are seen and assessed. A maximum waiting time target has now been set of 12 months for a first time outpatient appointment by 30 November 2013. In parallel with reducing the numbers of longest waiters, the SDU will also work with the HSE Clinical Programmes to reform the structure, organisation and delivery of outpatient services to ensure that the right patient is seen and assessed by the right health professional at the right time.
There is no intention to impose financial penalties on hospitals in relation to achieving waiting time targets. The SDU will continue to work with the HSE and the NTPF in order to ensure that waiting time targets are met. The HSE is also continuing to work closely with the hospitals that are operating budget deficits to ensure that the service impact of cost containment is kept to a minimum and to ensure that patient safety remains at the core of all decision making. The focus at all times is to achieve savings by obtaining better value for money and by continuing to introduce efficiencies in how hospitals do their business.
