Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 29 November 2018
152. Deputy Pat Buckley asked the Minister for Health the action he will take to address the long outpatient waiting times at Cork University Hospital and Mercy University Hospital, Cork; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49926/18]
View answerImproving access to hospital treatment is a key priority for government. This year €55 million was allocated to the NTPF to provide treatment for patients. This has been increased to a total of €75 million for 2019 and as a result of this additional funding, my Department is working closely with the NTPF and the HSE to finalise a Scheduled Care Access Plan for inpatients/day case and outpatients for 2019.
I recently met with the CEO's of all hospital groups and requested that they develop innovative proposals to address their outpatient lists in 2019.
Each year, 3.3 million patients attend Hospital Outpatient clinics for appointments. While the total numbers on the outpatient waiting list continues to grow, a targeted approach by the HSE in late 2017 and into 2018 has impacted on the level of growth. From January to September 2018, the rate of growth of the outpatient waiting list was a quarter of what it was in the same period in 2017.
In addition, this year has seen the NTPF approve almost 12,700 additional first-time outpatient appointments nationally and this is projected to increase to 40,000 appointments next year.
Furthermore, validation will play a key role in ensuring the accuracy of the outpatient waiting list and it is projected that 30,000 patients will be removed from the national outpatient waiting list through the validation consultation process in 2019.
The South-South West Hospital Group and NTPF have advised that they are working closely to deliver initiatives aimed at tackling Outpatient Waiting lists. Initiatives to date include weekend and out of hour clinics in the specialities of Ophthalmology, Plastics and Urology. I expect this collaboration will be maintained into 2019.
