Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 December 2013
7. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health the action he will take to reverse the 18.6% year-on-year increase in day case and inpatient waiting lists; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54086/13]
Amharc ar fhreagraWhat action will the Minister take to reverse the 18% increase year-on-year in inpatient waiting lists? The Minister has laid a heavy emphasis, and staked his career, on driving down waiting lists. This waiting list, however, is going in the wrong direction. What specific measures will be included in the HSE service plan, which is being announced elsewhere at the moment, to address and arrest the increase in those waiting lists?
In July 2011, when the special delivery unit, SDU, was set up, a total of 6,277 patients were waiting more than nine months for inpatient or day-case treatment. By the end of 2012, that number had been reduced by 98% for adults waiting over nine months for inpatient or day-case treatment and by 95% for children waiting over 20 weeks for such treatment. That is a fact. As an older lady said to me in my previous life as a GP, "The truth is not fragile, Doctor. It won’t break."
The early months of 2013, as anticipated, brought higher levels of emergency department admissions which, in turn, had a knock-on effect on scheduled care. However, the SDU, together with the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, and the HSE undertook a range of measures to address this, working closely with hospitals to analyse performance, to agree action plans and extra support as necessary and to ensure hospital capacity is being optimised.
Since August we have reduced the number of adults waiting over eight months by 78% from 6,800 on 22 August to 1,485 on 12 December. This represents a reduction from 13.5% to 3.2% in the total number of adults waiting for treatment. Similarly, we have reduced the numbers of children waiting over 20 weeks by 35%, from 883 to 576, in the same period. This represents 1.2% of the total number of children awaiting treatment. All hospitals have commenced necessary action plans to get as close as possible to the national wait time target of eight months by 31 December, and further decreases in the numbers waiting are anticipated before year end. The work continues even up to the end of the year, after Christmas, to ensure that those waiting for treatment get it and those who have been waiting the longest are treated first.
I accept that the truth is not fragile and will not break, but the Minister’s accountancy, logarithms and algorithms are very fragile because they simply belie the fact that there is an increase in the number of people waiting on day-case and inpatient waiting lists. Responses to recent questions that we have tabled and the publication by the NTPF of waiting lists show an increase in the number of people on waiting lists. The Minister can look at it whatever way he likes; even the number of children waiting has increased dramatically year on year. We waited months for the September figure to be published. We had to drag it out of the Department and eventually it was published. The Minister can deny for a while, but not forever, that there is an increase that has to be addressed in the context of the HSE service plan being announced elsewhere. Otherwise, people will wait longer than they already do.
The Deputy seems to be caught in the old ways of thinking. He assumes it is a simple one-and-one-is-two job.
One and one always make two.
The situation requires a change in the way we do business. If we do the same things the same way the whole time there will be no change. That is what went on for 14 years when the Deputy’s party was in government, despite its quadrupling the spend on health. With reduced funds and staff, we are making significant improvements. The Deputy is simply wrong. The fact is that the waiting lists have been reduced enormously. The Deputy chooses to compare September figures, but let us look at the end of December and we will talk about this in the new year. I do not know where he gets his 18.6% figure because it does not relate to any information I have.
Even as we speak the work is ongoing. Yes, it presents a real problem and a challenge because, unlike the Deputy, we counted the number of people awaiting an outpatient appointment and we are reducing those numbers. As a consequence we will need more inpatient treatment, which will put the pressure on, but the system is dealing with that in an equitable and fair way, looking after those who are waiting longest first, once the urgent cases and cancer cases have been dealt with.
I will give the Minister one simple statistic. In September 2013 there were 49,496 people on the inpatient and day-case list. If the Minister does the sums, as he claims to be good at doing, that is up 7,764 on the same month in 2012, which is 18.6%. There are increases in certain areas. In Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, and Children's University Hospital, Temple Street, inordinate delays are developing. That is happening as we speak. I am highlighting the issue. I am not trying to pretend I am a better mathematician than the Minister or otherwise, but the statistics and the figures do not lie and the NTPF’s published figures show an incremental increase in day case and inpatient waiting lists.
The Deputy can choose the month of September if he wishes. We are now in December. I have met Mr. Ian Carter, who is in charge of the hospitals and inpatient-----
The figures will be worse if I choose December.
I have the up-to-date figures and they are not remotely like those the Deputy talks about. There have been huge decreases in the numbers of people waiting.
When we came into power in 2011 there were tens of thousands of people waiting longer than a year. Some had waited longer than two years for treatment. We met the one-year target and the nine-month target and we will meet the eight-month target this year. We might be 1% or 2% off at the end but in the main it will be met. We have achieved that with a 20% reduction in the budget and a 10% reduction in staffing levels, as well as the doom and gloom coming from the far benches, with people saying that catastrophe will occur no matter what we do.
Thankfully, the mindset of the men and women who work in the health service is not of that nature.
Thankfully, that is the case, particularly when one considers they had to listen to doom and gloom from the Minister when he was spokesperson some years ago.
I congratulate them again and take the opportunity to wish them a happy Christmas.
