Holly Cairns
Question:653. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Health the steps he is taking to address the outpatient eye care waiting list. [46143/21]
View answerTuesday, 28 September 2021
Questions (653)
Written answers
It is recognised that waiting times for scheduled appointments and procedures have been impacted in the last eighteen months as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic and more recently as a result of the ransomware attack. While significant progress was made in reducing waiting times from June 2020 onwards, the surge in Covid-19 cases in the first quarter of 2021 and the associated curtailment of acute hospital services, coupled with the ransomware attack of May 2021, has impacted waiting times. However, the HSE advise that acute services are now almost all fully restored to pre-cyber-attack levels, and are operating in line with relevant Covid protocols.
My Department, the HSE and the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) are focusing on improving access to elective care in order to reduce waiting times for patients. These plans include increased use of private hospitals, funding weekend and evening work in public hospitals, funding “see and treat” services where minor procedures are provided at the same time as outpatient consultations, providing virtual clinics and increasing capacity in the public hospital system.
The NTPF have advised my department that they have approved 7 Outpatient ophthalmology initiatives and 1 See & Treat initiative for funding so far in 2021, which will facilitate treatment for 11,749 patients on ophthalmology waiting lists.
An additional €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 NTPF. This is to be used to fund additional capacity to address the shortfall arising as a result of infection control measures taken in the context of COVID-19, as well as addressing backlogs in waiting lists.
In order to address waiting lists in the immediate-short term the Department of Health, HSE, and National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) are finalising a waiting list Action Plan which will be in operation until the end of 2021. The Action plan will focus on addressing the backlog arising from the Covid-19 pandemic and the HSE cyber-attack. A longer term Multi-Annual Waiting List Plan, which is an essential part of the Sláintecare Implementation Strategy and Action Plan approved by Government in May the year, is also currently being finalised.