Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 26 Mar 1992

Vol. 417 No. 7

Written Answers. - Surgery Waiting Lists.

Charles Flanagan

Ceist:

97 Mr. Flanagan asked the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the fact that some health boards report an average waiting time for cardiac surgery of two years, and for cataract operations of 15 months; and the steps he plans to take to deal with these problems.

Minister for Health (Dr. O'Connell)

Cardiac surgery is carried out at three centres, the Mater Hospital, Dublin, Cork Regional Hospital and Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin. The Deputy will be pleased to learn that I have provided funding this year for the further development of cardiac services in Dublin and Cork. As an immediate step I have allocated £120,000 within the last few days for the provision of 40 additional open heart operations at the Mater Hospital this year. These developments will improve waiting times for cardiac surgery nationally.

Cataract surgery is available at a number of hospitals throughout the country.

I would like to stress that, as with other treatment, the admission of a patient to hospital for cardiac surgery or for cataract surgery is a clinical decision for the consultant in charge of the case. Waiting lists are kept under review and priority is given to urgent cases. Emergency patients are dealt with immediately.

I am concerned to ensure that action is taken to tackle the most pressing problems in regard to waiting times. As a first step it is essential that accurate and reliable data is available from all the agencies concerned.

In this context, the Deputy will be aware that all accute hospitals were asked to validate their waiting lists. Some hospitals are still in the process of carrying out this review. On completion of the validation exercise, formalised regular arrangements are to be put in place by each hospital for the ongoing review and validation of lists which will ensure that comprehensive and reliable data on patients awaiting treatment is readily available.

The Deputy will be aware that the Dublin Hospital Initiative Group, under the chairmanship of Professor David Kennedy, focused on the management and review of waiting lists and general strategies to improve waiting times for treatment. In their report the group recommended that as well as establishing meaningful and comprehensive waiting list data, hospitals should target waiting lists by ensuring that explicit account is taken of waiting times in scheduling admission, including theatre lists, and that speciality teams have reasonable targets to guide their attempts to minimise waiting by patients.

The group have been reconvened and part of their new remit is to pursue the implementation of the recommendations in relation to waiting lists in Dublin hospitals. In addition, health boards and hospitals outside of Dublin have been asked by my Department to consider the good practice recommendations contained in the report and to report back to my Department on their plans for the implementation of the recommendations, including those in relation to waiting lists.