Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 October 2018
97. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for Health the action he will take to address the long outpatient waiting times in the Midland Regional Hospital, Tullamore in which 3,691 persons are waiting more than 18 months for an appointment. [43567/18]
View answerIn Budget 2019 the Government has prioritised improving access and reducing waiting times for patients, with funding to the National Treatment Purchase fund (NTPF) increasing from €55 million in 2018 to €75 million in 2019, of which, €6 million will be committed to outpatient activity.
To date in 2018, the NTPF has approved almost 12,700 additional first-time outpatient appointments and this is projected to increase to 40,000 appointments next year. I recently met with the CEO’s of all hospital groups to discuss improving access for patients and requested that they work with the NTPF and HSE in 2019 develop innovative proposals to address the number of long waiters on outpatient lists in 2019.
Outpatient waiting list figures for the end of September for Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore show that there were more than 14,282 patients waiting for a first outpatient appointment, of which 74% are waiting less than 18 months.
More broadly, Dublin Midlands Hospital Group is working to introduce complete 'episode of care' clinics, as well as evaluating options for outsourcing appropriate specialties to reduce outpatient waiting lists.
In addition, the Central Waiting List Validation function, which was established in the NTPF last month, will deliver a standardised approach to validation across all hospitals in line with best patient-centred practices. This new function will have many benefits including the identification of patients on waiting lists who are ready and available to proceed with hospital care, the reduction in the Did Not Attend rate (DNA), and an improvement in information for managing waiting lists. The NTPF estimates that 30,000 patients who no longer require treatment will come off the outpatient waiting list in 2019 as a result of this activity.
