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Hospital Waiting Lists

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 October 2013

Tuesday, 15 October 2013

Questions (439)

John McGuinness

Question:

439. Deputy John McGuinness asked the Minister for Health his plans to deal with the urgent cases that were referred from Waterford General Hospital to Cappagh as these patients have now been told that the funding is now not available for the Cappagh iniative and they are now back on the WRH waiting lists; if he will confirm an early appointment in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Kilkenny. [43573/13]

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Written answers

In July 2011, I announced changes to the remit of the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF), to support the mission of the Special Delivery Unit (SDU). The NTPF/SDU are working closely with hospitals towards achievement of waiting time targets.

I am advised that, as part of this work in 2012, funding was set aside from the 2012 NTPF allocation to support Waterford Regional Hospital in arranging initial consultations for a limited number of orthopaedic outpatients, with the cooperation of Cappagh Hospital in Dublin. It would not be possible to predict with certainty, in advance of consultations taking place, whether all those outpatients would require further medical help, nor to predict the cohort of patients who would require follow-on in-patient surgical intervention.

In 2013, unlike previous years, funding for such performance improvement initiatives is held within the HSE Vote. Hence, the hospitals involved agreed to an orderly transition of the initiative (which had already commenced) to minimise any disruption to the patients involved and make best use of the patient appointments already held, while working within a budget now provided directly to public hospitals.

Of the 1,871 patient referrals from Waterford to Cappagh, 1,623 patients had their treatment completed at Cappagh. The remaining 248 will now have their treatment provided by Waterford. I am advised that those patients who had been scheduled for either an outpatient appointment or a procedure at Cappagh are being rescheduled for appointments and treatment at Waterford and the hospital is currently writing to these patients, advising them that their care needs will be seen to as expeditiously as possible.

In relation to the particular query raised, I have asked the Health Service Executive to investigate the situation and respond directly to the Deputy.

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