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National Treatment Purchase Fund Waiting Times

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 July 2015

Thursday, 9 July 2015

Questions (25)

Billy Kelleher

Question:

25. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health if he is satisfied that outpatient waiting list figures published for December 2013 by the National Treatment Purchase Fund were accurate; if the data reported in waiting lists published a year later did not contradict the information published in December 2013; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27658/15]

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Written answers

The NTPF reports are generated from data provided by hospitals regarding all patients on their waiting lists at a specific point in time. The figures reported by the NTPF as waiting over one year at 31 December 2013 were accurate as of that date.

Only hospitals have the capacity to add patients to or to remove patients from waiting lists. The NTPF reports reflect objectively the numbers on the waiting list as provided by hospitals: any variance in figures is due to internal hospital management of those waiting lists subsequent to providing 'point in time' data to the NTPF.

In the final quarter of 2013 hospitals conducted full waiting list validation, specifically targeted to address patients waiting in excess of 1 year. This resulted in a cohort of patients being removed by hospitals from waiting lists on the basis that they no longer wanted the appointment or because they did not respond to the validation requests.

As is best practice during such validation processes internationally, GPs and patients themselves can request re-instatement to a waiting list after removal. In such instances, patients are re-instated at the original date of referral to ensure their former position on the waiting list is retained. I am informed that a proportion of the variance between patients waiting over 2 years on December 2014 and patients waiting over 1 year on December 2013 is likely to have resulted from patients being placed back on a waiting list at the GP's request or the patient's own request.

Patients were also placed back on waiting lists following the 2013 initiative which saw over 20,000 patients awaiting OPD appointments attending for consultation in the private system: after attending an initial outpatient appointment in a private facility, patients who required further treatment were placed on the appropriate waiting list in order to continue their care within the public health service. All of those who were returned to the public hospital waiting list re-entered the waiting lists at their original date to ensure that they were not disadvantaged.

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