Vol. 437 No. 4
67 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Health the maximum waiting time for patients referred to eye specialists in Dublin; the typical waiting time for surgery once it has been diagnosed; and whether these waiting times are satisfactory.
Data in relation to maximum waiting times for out-patient appointments is not routinely collected by my Department.
The Deputy will be aware that, under the £20 million waiting list initiative which I launched earlier this year, substantial inroads are being made in reducing the number of patients on waiting lists throughout the country.
In relation to in-patient treatment, the number of adult patients waiting over 12 months for ophthalmic treatment in Dublin at the time I launched the initiative was 776 and the number of children waiting over six months was 334.
In the area of ophthalmology, £1.007 million has been allocated to hospitals in the Eastern Health Board area to enable an additional 805 procedures for adults and 307 procedures for children to be performed this year. These procedures are additional to the baseline activity which hospitals perform on a day to day basis.
