Vol. 567 No. 1
285 Mr. McCormack asked the Minister for Health and Children if there are equality issues in the administration of the treatment purchase programme for people in the Western Health Board area on arthritis waiting lists and persons suffering from other diseases; and his views on whether this programme is discriminatory in that it only treats persons who are waiting for surgery and does not facilitate people on other waiting lists. [13370/03]
295 Mr. McCormack asked the Minister for Health and Children the position regarding people in the Western Health Board area on the arthritis waiting list; if there is equal administration of the treatment purchase programme; if people suffering from arthritis and other diseases on the waiting list avail of the treatment purchase programme; if this programme is confined to people who are waiting for surgery; the position regarding facilitating patients on the other waiting lists to ensure that there is no discrimination in the application of this programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13369/03]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 285 and 295 together.
It has been estimated that approximately 80% of patients on waiting lists for admission to hospital are in the nine surgical specialties of orthopaedics, ENT, ophthalmology, plastic surgery, urology, gynaecology, cardiac surgery, vascular surgery and general surgery. Surgical procedures for these specialties require the patient to be admitted to hospital as a day case or as an in-patient, which involves at least one overnight stay in hospital. Arising from the health strategy, Quality and Fairness – A Health System for You, the national treatment purchase fund was established for the sole purpose of purchasing treatment for the public patients who have been waiting longest for treatment in hospital. The treatment purchase fund is initially concentrating on those adults waiting longer than 12 months for admission to hospital and children waiting longer than six months for admission to hospital, rather than on those patients requiring out-patient services.
The health boards have been asked to identify public hospital patients waiting longest on in-patient lists so that they can be offered treatment under the purchase fund. Public patients who satisfy the criteria can apply to their general practitioners, medical consultants or local health boards to seek to have their treatment carried out under the fund. Some 4,200 patients have received treatment so far and this figure continues to rise. The treatment purchase fund has identified sufficient capacity to treat approximately 8,000 patients in 2003. My Department has asked the chief executive officer of the Western Health Board to reply directly to the Deputy in relation to the position of patients awaiting treatment for arthritis conditions.
