Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 December 2022
7. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Health if he will indicate the new capacity planned for 2023 in clearing waiting lists within the public system and through the NTPF; the estimated number of additional outpatient first-time consultations and the number of additional procedures which will be facilitated in each case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60854/22]
View answerI know €450 million has been set aside for next year to address waiting lists. What can this deliver in terms of the number of procedures? In respect of interventions delayed during Covid being prioritised, how will that work?
A very large amount of money, €443 million, has been allocated. The figure for this year is €350 million, while there was a lower figure in quarter 4 of last year. All of this is beginning to accelerate and provide improvements for patients. Of the €443 million for next year, €123 million is recurrent funding being sought to improve and speed up various patient pathways. Dr. Colm Henry, the chief clinical officer, is taking the lead on those.
There is €240 million to continue tackling the waiting list backlogs. This includes funding for the NTPF and it is making very good progress. There will be additional and one-off funding for the HSE to use across the country.
Part of the remaining €80 million will be used to ensure access to the diagnostics scheme increases. This has been a really successful scheme. Last year, we allocated €25 million. It was the first time GPs had direct access to diagnostics for their patients. We got very positive feedback from GPs. I think 138,000 scans were done with that €25 million. This year, we have increased the allocation to €35 million. My understanding is that we will exceed 200,000 scans this year, again keeping pressure off hospitals and emergency departments. The figure will increase to €47 million next year so in two years, we will have gone from zero to €25 million to €35 million and then €47 million. This gives a sense of the scale of the money and how it is being deployed.
I know the NTPF has tended to prioritise certain high-volume procedures. Will the resources be concentrated on those or can we expect the NTPF to extend the procedure list? How is it proposed by Dr. Colm Henry or others to identify the delayed interventions that occurred during Covid and have no doubt resulted in a need to reassess the priority of different patients on the list? Will there be a process to ensure that with this money, we get to the patients with the greatest priority?
The NTPF is working very well. We funded it to provide treatment for any patient waiting more than six months for up to 15 high-volume procedures. That will increase to 20 high-volume procedures. I am pleased to note that as of the end of last month, 80% of patients waiting for more than six months for these procedures have been authorised for NTPF treatment. It is going very well.
How are the bottlenecks in patient flow being identified? Comprehensive work was done last year and this year across the system. It involved going patient pathway by patient pathway and hospital by hospital. It identified bottlenecks at granular level. Sometimes it was additional capacity such as theatres or MRI machines, while at other times it came down to decisions that three more nurses were needed here, two theatre nurses were needed there and a respiratory clinician was needed over there. It is being done at a granular level to do what the Deputy alluded to, namely, identifying the bottlenecks and investing in tackling them.
