Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 March 2021
863. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Health the estimated impact of Covid-19 on waiting times for non-urgent care; and the average waiting times for non-urgent care, by category, since January 2020 to date, in tabular form. [11566/21]
View answerIt is recognised that waiting times for scheduled appointments and procedures have been impacted in the last year as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The HSE is currently recommending that only critical time dependent elective procedures are undertaken at this time due to the on-going and significant increased demand for bed capacity related to Covid-19.
This decision was made arising from the rapid increase in Covid-19 admissions and to ensure patient safety and that all appropriate resources were made available for Covid-19 related activity and time-critical essential work.
Patient safety remains at the centre of all hospital activity and elective care scheduling. To ensure services are provided in a safe, clinically-aligned and prioritised way, hospitals are following HSE clinical guidelines and protocols.
The National Waiting List Management Policy is a standardised approach used by the HSE to manage scheduled care treatment for in-patient, day case and planned procedures. It sets out the processes that hospitals are to implement to manage waiting lists and was developed in 2014 to ensure that all administrative, managerial and clinical staff follow an agreed national minimum standard for the management and administration of waiting lists for scheduled care.
€240 million has been provided in Budget 2021 for an access to care fund, €210m of which has been allocated to the HSE and a further €30m to the National Treatment Purchase Fund, to fund additional capacity to address the shortfall arising as a result of measures taken in the context of Covid-19, as well as to address waiting lists.
The latest published National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) figures (Jan 2021) show that the inpatient & daycase (IPDC) waiting list increased by 21% when compared to the same period last year. The figures also show that the outpatient waiting increased by 12% when compared to the same period last year.
In regard to the information requested by the Deputy in relation to average waiting times, the attached documents outline the average wait times for IPDC and outpatient by specialty in January 2020 and January 2021.
