Ruth Coppinger
Question:209. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for Health his plans to reduce the waiting times for transgender persons to access hormone treatment. [2589/18]
View answerThursday, 18 January 2018
Questions (209)
Written answers
I am aware that the waiting times are often unacceptably long and this places a significant burden on patients and their families. Reducing waiting times for the longest waiting patients is one of this Government's key priorities. Consequently, Budget 2018 allocated €55 million for the National Treatment Purchase Fund in 2018. This significant increase in funding more than doubles their 2017 total allocation which was €20m.
The HSE and NTPF are working together to develop coherent and synergistic Waiting List Action Plans in 2018 with the objective of arranging the provision of treatment for patients across a range of inpatient/daycase and outpatient specialties and procedures. These initiatives will continue to focus on long-waiting patients and overall waiting list numbers.
The NTPF publishes the Inpatient and Outpatient waiting list figures by specialty and hospital each month. This information is available on NTPF.ie. The most recent figures published by the NTPF for December 2017 indicates that there is a total of 41 people on the Inpatient/Daycase waiting list for Endocrinology and a total of 9,043 people on the Outpatient waiting list for Endocrinology. The Deputy may wish to note that this data is extracted from the overall waiting list figures which do not differentiate transgender patients from other patients on the waiting list.
With respect to transgender persons seeking to access hormone treatment, the existing care pathway in Ireland generally begins with an approach by an individual to their GP. The GP may refer the person to the local Community Mental Health Team for support and a diagnosis of Gender Dysphoria by psychiatrist or a clinical psychologist. A thorough assessment is a pre-requisite to commencing hormone suppressants in Ireland, in line with international best practice. This is to ensure that the correct path is being taken for the individual and to ensure co-morbid issues are identified and addressed.
More broadly, the National Waiting List Management Policy, A standardised approach to managing scheduled care treatment for in-patient, day case and planned procedures, January 2014, 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.