Bernard J. Durkan
Ceist:113 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Health and Children the progress made to reduce the numbers and the waiting lists for hip operations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10373/98]
Written Answers. - Hospital Waiting Lists.
Bernard J. Durkan
Ceist:117 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Health and Children the extent to which he expects a reduction in the number of patients awaiting treatment for cataracts by the end of 1998; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10377/98]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 113 and 117 together.
Since the waiting list initiative commenced in 1993, it has focused upon those areas of hospital treatment where long waiting times have caused the greatest difficulty including orthopaedics and ophthalmology. I have provided a total of £12 million to address hospital waiting lists in 1998. This brings to £70 million the total resources committed to the reduction of hospital waiting lists since the current initiative commenced in 1993. It represents a 50 per cent increase over the funding made available last year for waiting list work.
In addition, I have reviewed the arrangements for application of waiting list funding and I have recently taken the following initiatives to improve the effectiveness of the system: where applicable, agencies have been notified in their determination of net expenditure for 1998 of the level of funding available to them for waiting list work. This will give agencies much earlier notice of the money available than in previous years and will enable them to plan their activity accordingly; each agency's service plan must now specify targets for waiting list activity during the year. It will then be the responsibility of the chief executive offficer-hospital manager to ensure that the targets are achieved and to take corrective action if necessary as the year proceeds; agencies have been instructed to focus increasingly on waiting times as well as on waiting lists, with the objective of ensuring that children do not have to wait longer than six months and adults no longer than 12 months in the specialties targeted for attention and where agencies have not already done so, they have been requested to designate an individual to act as a co-ordinator of waiting list work within the agency and as a contact point with the Department. I am confident that taken together, these measures offer the best means of reducing both waiting lists and waiting times.
In order to maximise the effectiveness of the waiting list initiative, I recently announced a review group consisting of clinicians and managers with the following terms of reference: the net effect of the current waiting list initiative on waiting lists and waiting times; any incentive effects of the WLI on participating hospitals in relation to their activity and treatment schedules; the extent to which hospitals can consistently and accurately validate their waiting lists; and the adequacy of existing information systems to permit routine evaluation of the WLI.
I have asked the review group to report to me by the end of June so that its recommendations can be taken into account for the Estimates process in 1999 and subsequent years. The review group is holding its first meeting today.
114
asked the Minister for Health and Children the numbers awaiting cardio by-pass surgery; the number anticipated by the end of 1998; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10374/98]
Public patient waiting list statistics are collected by hospitals and furnished to my Department on a quarterly basis. At the end of December l997, the most recent period for which information is available, there were 1,150 patients awaiting cardiac by-pass surgery. I will shortly be allocating funding under the l998 waiting list initiative, specifically for cardiac surgery patients. I am confident that this will have a significant impact on the l998 waiting list figures. However, at this stage I am not in a position to be definitive about year end figures, given the difficulty in predicting with accuracy how demand will evolve over the course of the year.