Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 September 2018
155. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Health the number of persons waiting for cataract operations in the South-South West Hospital Group sites; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39267/18]
View answerReducing waiting times for Cataract surgery remains a top priority in 2018. In the Inpatient Day Case Action Plan, launched in April, 25% (5,000 out of 20,000) of the planned National Treatment Purchase Fund procedures were allocated for cataract patients.
Under the Action Plan, the NTPF commits to offer treatment to all clinically suitable patients waiting more than 9 months for a cataract procedure.
The impact of the Action Plan can be seen in the improvements to the Waiting Lists for Cataracts which have seen a reduction of over 3,100 over the past 13 months. August figures for cataracts show that there are now 6,868 on the waiting list, compared to over 10,000 in July 2017. The number of patients waiting over 9 months for a cataract procedure has gone from over 4,300 in July 2017 to 1,078 in August 2018, with 64% of patients waiting 3 months or less.
While the Department does not routinely collect data at procedure level by group, waiting list figures from the NTPF indicate that since July 2017, the numbers on the Inpatient/Daycase list for ophthalmology in the SSW hospital group has fallen from 3,509 to 2,826 at the end of August 2018. Cataracts would make up a significant proportion of the ophthalmology waiting lists. The percentage of ophthalmology patients on the IPDC list waiting 9 months or more at the end of August 2018 is 27%.
I will ask the NTPF to provide information on the number of cataracts patients in SSW to the end of August and I will provide this information to the Deputy directly.
