Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 July 2018
1588. Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly asked the Minister for Health the number of public patients in each public and voluntary hospital who have been removed from outpatient lists each month in 2018 as a result of a validation exercise and not as a result of having an appointment with a consultant. [33533/18]
View answerI have asked the HSE to respond to your query directly in terms of the numbers removed from outpatient department waiting lists through validation in each month in 2018.
Good practice around the management of hospital waiting lists recommends periodic validation of waiting lists.
Validation is the process whereby hospital administration contacts patients on waiting lists at pre-planned intervals during the year to ensure that patients are ready, willing, suitable and available to attend a hospital appointment or wish to be removed.
Importantly, the validation process allows for situations where, if requested by the GP/referring clinician, patients can be reinstated back to their original place on to the Waiting List.
Last month, I approved the establishment of a Central Waiting List Validation function in the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF). The establishment of the new centralised validation office will put in place protocols and practices which will ensure a standardisation of approach to the validation of all waiting lists across all hospitals.
The new Office is expected to commence validation of patient files in September.
