As the Deputy will be aware from my reply to him of 25th September last, 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 been adopted by the HSE, sets out the processes that hospitals are to implement to manage waiting lists.
I understand that the HSE wrote to the Deputy on 10th October last in relation to this matter and advised him that the relevant Consultant clinically prioritises each patient requiring a procedure with each patient's name added to the list. Patients are then scheduled for their procedure in strict chronological order. It will be a matter for the hospital to advise the patient of the arrangements for her treatment and it would be in appropriate for me to intervene in a clinical matter.
I have however again asked the HSE to respond directly to the Deputy if further details can be made available.