Stephen Donnelly
Question:30. Deputy Stephen Donnelly asked the Minister for Health the status of the scheduled care access plan 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41267/19]
View answerThursday, 10 October 2019
Questions (30)
Written answers
The joint Department of Health/HSE/National Treatment Purchase Fund Scheduled Care Access Plan, published in March of this year, set out ambitious targets to improve waiting times for patients to access hospital procedures and appointments.
Waiting list figures for the end of September 2019, due to be published by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) this week, show that there are just under 68,000 people on the Inpatient Day Case Waiting List. This is a reduction of 6.5% (4,700) compared to September 2018, while the numbers waiting over 9 months have fallen by 16% (3,100), and the number waiting over 18 months have fallen by 19% compared to the same period last year.
The Outpatient waiting list remains a challenge, with figures for the end of September 2019 standing at almost at 569,000 an increase of over 53,000 (10%) in the last year. The GI Endoscopy waiting list shows 22,197 patients waiting, which is an increase of 4,669 (27%) since last September.
These figures highlight that scheduled care activity has, for much of the year, been running behind the levels set out in the Access Plan. Performance reflects the impact of the broader challenges being experienced across the health service this year, which include:
- The impact of the industrial action – the HSE advise that the strike action in January/February and June resulted in the cancellation of over 54,000 appointments across IPDC, OPD and GI scope procedures;
- Increased Emergency workload coupled with increased Delayed Discharges has reduced the HSE capacity to accommodate less urgent elective cases; and
- Increased referrals to the Endoscopy Programme as well as the increased demands on the service arising from the National Screening programmes.
As the numbers waiting are behind the activity targets set out in the Scheduled Care Access Plan 2019, I have directed the HSE to develop plans to recover as much lost activity as possible before the end of this year.
Budget 2020 announced that the Government has further increased investment in tackling waiting lists, with funding to the National Treatment Purchase fund (NTPF) increasing from €75 million in 2019 to €100 million in 2020. The year-on-year increases to the National Treatment Purchase Fund since Budget 2017 reflects this Government’s priority to improve waiting times for patients to access hospital treatment.
My Department is working with the HSE and NTPF to develop the Scheduled Care Access Plan 2020. In this regard, the HSE National Service Plan 2020 will set out a planned activity level for the year ahead, while the NTPF will work with the hospital system to provide additionality to reduce inpatient/day case waiting times, and with a particular focus on improving access to hospital outpatient services.
In 2020, the NTPF will further expand its list of targeted inpatient and daycase procedures to support further significant reductions in wait times as well as increasing funding towards supporting full packages of care for patients on the outpatient waiting lists, to include surgery or treatment where required.