I thank Deputy Jack Chambers for his question. I fully acknowledge, as all Deputies would, the distress and inconvenience for patients and their families when elective procedures are cancelled. Maintaining scheduled care access is a key priority for hospitals, and balancing this with emergency demand is challenging. However, all efforts are made to limit cancellations, particularly for clinically urgent procedures.
Cancellation of elective procedures can occur for a variety of reasons. The classifications for cancellation of elective surgery include the following: patient had procedure externally; already had procedure in-house; cancelled by a consultant; cancelled by a patient or guardian; cancelled because of no bed; correction of clerical error; no theatre time available; patient did not attend; patient has undergone emergency admission; and patient unfit for procedure. Based on data provided by the NTPF, approximately 3,400 elective procedures are cancelled per month on average. However, this must be seen in context of the reasons I have just listed, which can be complex, and an average of 53,000 admissions to acute hospitals on a day-case and inpatient basis per month.
The NTPF national inpatient-day case planned procedure waiting list management protocol, published in early 2017, sets out the national protocols for the management of waiting lists including the scheduling of patient treatment. Under this protocol, and in line with best practice, patients should not be scheduled for treatment more than six weeks in advance. On this basis, the HSE has advised that patients will not have been scheduled, as yet, for treatment in November and December. I am happy to come back to the Deputy when we have the relevant data. Also, data on cancellations are reported to the NTPF after cancellation and therefore are not available in advance.
The HSE continues to work with hospitals to improve the management of emergency care demand and planning of elective procedures to minimise the impact on patients, as well as the number of sessions lost through cancellations or non-attendance. As the Deputy is aware, the Department of Health has commenced a health service capacity review, the findings of which are due to be published before the end of the year and which will inform future capacity developments. We need to arrive at a place where there is a decoupling between the beds needed for elective care and those needed for emergency care.