Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 March 2020
816. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Health the number of children under 18 years of age waiting on a hospital based health waiting list by the speciality and or procedure they are on the list for by local health office, LHO, at the end of February 2020 or the latest date available. [3588/20]
View answerIn relation to the specific query raised by the Deputy, the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) has provided the information requested in the tables attached. The tables show the breakdown by hospital of children under 18 who are on the Outpatient Waiting List and also the number on the Inpatient and Day Case Waiting List, including G.I. Endoscopy. The NTPF has further advised that within the Public Health System, children are generally classified as those under the age of 16, while the figures in the attached tables also include patients between 16 and 18 years of age, to reflect patients who were under 18 on the 30th January 2020 according to the Date of Birth received from the relevant hospital.
The NTPF has further advised that to protect patient privacy and prevent disclosures, they are unable to break the figures down to specialty level as this would lead to groupings of less than 5 patients in many instances.
