I am conscious that waiting times are often unacceptably long and of the burden that this places on patients and their families. In this regard, I am committed to improving waiting times for hospital appointments and procedures.
Budget 2019 announced that the Government had further increased investment in tackling waiting lists, with funding to the NTPF increasing from €55 million in 2018 to €75 million in 2019.
The joint Department of Health/HSE/NTPF Scheduled Care Access Plan 2019 was published on Monday. The plan sets out measures to improve care for patients waiting for scheduled care in 2019 by reducing wait times for inpatient/day case treatment and outpatient appointments and will place a strong focus on a number of high-volume procedures including cataracts. When combined with HSE activity it is projected that the NTPF will be in a position to offer treatment to all clinically suitable patients waiting more than 6 months for one of these procedures.
The NTPF will deliver additional activity in the health service by working with hospital groups and individual hospitals as well as private health providers to maximise the number of patients treated in both a public and private capacity. I would strongly encourage all hospitals, including University Hospital Waterford, to continue to collaborate with the NTPF to identify waiting list initiatives.
The data requested by the deputy is contained in the following table.
Cataract IPDC waiting list in UHW – patients waiting over 6, 12, 18 months
6 months +
|
12 months +
|
18 months +
|
Total Waiters
|
531
|
70
|
33
|
1211
|