Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 March 2013
502. Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Minister for Health the number of patients waiting on a gastric bypass at St Colmcilles' Hospital; the average waiting time for these patients; the action he will take to address the problem of long waiting lists; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13720/13]
View answer507. Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Minister for Health if he will confirm the longest time a patient has had to wait for a gastric bypass at St Colmcille's Hospital within the past two years. [13798/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 502 and 507 together.
In 2011, I established the Special Delivery Unit in my Department as set out in the Programme for Government. The aim of the SDU is to unblock access to acute services by improving the flow of patients through the system. The SDU's Scheduled Care Team focused initially on waiting times for in-patient and daycase elective surgery. For 2012, a target was set that no adult should wait longer than 9 months for inpatient or daycase treatment. By the end of December 2012, the number of adults having to wait more than 9 months for inpatient and day case surgery nationally had fallen to 86. This was down from 3,706 in December 2011, representing a 98% decrease.
I am determined that the progress made in 2012 be maintained and improved upon. For 2013, the target is that no adult should be waiting longer than 8 months for inpatient or daycase treatment. It is important to recognise that the progress made in 2012 does not mean the problem is solved, and 2013 will of course be extremely challenging. For example, winter pressures in Emergency Departments have impacted on scheduled care waiting times. However, in the coming months, as winter pressures ease, the SDU will work towards re-balancing scheduled care to maintain the improvements seen in 2012 and to achieve the new 2013 target.
In relation to waiting list management in general, the National Waiting List Management Policy, A standardised approach to managing scheduled care treatment for in-patient, day case and planned procedures, January 2013, has been developed to ensure that all administrative, managerial and clinical staff follow an agreed national minimum standard for the management and administration of waiting lists for scheduled care. This policy, which has recently been adopted by the HSE, sets out the processes that hospitals are to implement to manage waiting lists. In relation to this particular query raised by the Deputy regarding waiting lists for gastric bypass surgery, I have asked the Health Service Executive to investigate the situation and respond directly to the Deputy in this matter.
