Jim Higgins
Ceist:111 Mr. J. Higgins asked the Minister for Health when a person (details supplied) in County Mayo will be called for a cataract operation.
Written Answers. - Hospital Waiting Lists.
This patient is on the urgent out-patient waiting list for assessment in respect of a cataract operation at University College Hospital, Galway.
The Deputy will appreciate that the scheduling of appointments for patients is a matter for the consultant concerned and urgent cases are always accorded priority. Should the patient feel that his condition has deteriorated, he should return to his general practitioner who would be in the best position to stress the urgency of his case directly to the consultant at the hospital.
As the Deputy is aware, yesterday I launched the £20 million major action programme on hospital in-patient waiting lists which is specifically targeted at those areas of hospital treatment where long waiting times are causing the greatest hardship. These include orthopaedics hip replacement and other procedures; ophthalmology, cataracts and other procedures; ear, nose, and throat; cardiac surgery, by-pass operations; vascular surgery, varicose veins; and plastic surgery.
The overall aim is to eliminate waiting lists in excess of 12 months in these particular specialities and to set a maximum period of six months for children awaiting ENT or eye treatment. In the case of cataract operations for adults, the target set for additional cataract operation is greater than the number of persons on waiting lists for more than a year.
My Department will be in touch with individual health boards, including the Western Health Board, and hospital authorities over the next couple of days notifying them of their allocations from the waiting list fund.