Michael Ring
Ceist:469 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Health and Children when a person (details supplied) in County Mayo will be called for a hip operation. [18565/99]
Written Answers. - Hospital Waiting Lists.
The provision of medical treatment to eligible persons in County Mayo in this instance is the statutory responsibility of the Western Health Board. I have asked the chief executive officer of the board to investigate the position in relation to this case and to reply to the Deputy directly.
Noel Ahern
Ceist:470 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Health and Children the basis for the recent allocation of £200,000 and £300,000 to the Mater and Beaumont hospitals under the waiting list initiative; the way in which these hospitals qualified for a performance bonus; the relevant similar payments to other Dublin hospitals; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17638/99]
The report of the review group on the waiting list initiative recommended that a portion of the funding available for waiting list procedures should be retained for distribution to the hospitals which achieved the greatest improvement in waiting times and waiting lists. I accepted this recommendation.
I retained £3 million of the £20 million set aside this year for waiting list procedures and allocated it to the hospitals that achieved the best reductions in waiting lists and waiting times in the first quarter of this year. The criteria used for allocation of this funding were: the extent of reduction in waiting times in target specialties in the quarter ending 31 March 1999; the extent of reduction in waiting lists over the same period; the proposals for waiting list activity as set out in agencies' service agreements; and my Department's assessment of agencies' proposals, including the costed case mix analysis to which each service agreement has been subject.
My Department then invited formal proposals from the best-performing hospitals in the first quarter of the year for carrying out additional waiting list work during the remainder of 1999. Hospitals were asked to specify such factors as their capacity for additional waiting list work; the specialties that would be targeted for additional work; the number of extra procedures that they could carry out; the total cost and marginal cost involved; and the scope for contracting out to other hospitals.
Based on an analysis of these proposals, I allocated the funding to the following hospitals:
|
Hospital |
Allocation (£m) |
|
Beaumont |
300,000 |
|
Letterkenny General |
300,000 |
|
Limerick Regional |
100,000 |
|
Mater |
200,000 |
|
Mercy Hospital |
20,000 |
|
Merlin Park |
100,000 |
|
Sligo General |
200,000 |
|
South Infirmary |
150,000 |
|
St. James's |
330,000 |
|
St. Luke's Kilkenny |
100,000 |
|
Tallaght |
300,000 |
|
Tullamore General |
300,000 |
|
UCHG |
300,000 |
|
Waterford Regional |
300,000 |
|
Total |
3,000,000 |