Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 November 2017
95. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Minister for Health his plans for eliminating waiting times of more than 12 weeks for inpatient procedures, ten weeks for outpatient appointments and ten days for diagnostic tests. [48178/17]
View answerI acknowledge that waiting times are often unacceptably long and I am conscious of the burden that this places on patients and their families.
Reducing waiting times for the longest waiting patients is one of this Government's key priorities. Consequently, Budget 2017 allocated €20 million to the NTPF, rising to €55 million in 2018. Budget 2018 allocated additional funding in the region of €10m for the remainder of 2017 to fund patient treatment across a range of key specialties and procedures.
In order to reduce the numbers of long-waiting patients, the HSE has been implementing Waiting List Action Plans for 2017 in the areas of Inpatient/Daycase, Scoliosis and Outpatient Services. The Inpatient/Daycase Action Plan is being delivered through a combination of normal hospital activity, as well as insourcing and outsourcing initiatives utilising NTPF funding. Under the Inpatient/Daycase Plan, since early February, over 29,000 patients have come off the Inpatient/Daycase Waiting List.
The NTPF has advised that to date 14,551 patients have been authorised for treatment in private hospitals under its Initiatives, 4,574 patients have accepted an offer of treatment in a private hospital and that 1,822 patients have received their procedure. The NTPF has also indicated that 3,716 patients have been authorised for treatment in public hospitals under the Plan’s insourcing initiatives, 1,415 offers of treatment have been accepted and 776 patients have been treated. Under the Outpatient Plan, since early February, almost 100,000 patients have come off the Outpatient Waiting List.
The NTPF are undertaking an initiative to provide diagnostic endoscopy tests to an extra 700 patients who are waiting for scopes. Under this Initiative, the NTPF will provide an endoscopy procedure to an extra 700 of the longest-waiting patients. The NTPF is currently in the process of rolling this initiative, with outsourcing underway. The NTPF will work with public hospitals to identify those patients who will be offered outsourcing of their procedure to a private hospital.
With regard to 2018, €50m in funding will be allocated to the NTPF for patient treatment and a further €10m to HSE to address waiting lists, including in the area of paediatric orthopaedics and scoliosis. The HSE and NTPF are working together to develop coherent and synergistic Waiting List Action Plans in 2018 for inpatient/daycase, outpatient and scoliosis, in order to continue the focus on long-waiting patients and overall waiting list numbers.
