Improving waiting times for scheduled care for patients is a key priority for the Government. In January, I put in place maximum permissible waiting times for in-patient and day case treatment and outpatient appointments of 18 months by 30 June and 15 months by year end.
The HSE was provided with additional funding of €51m to ensure that these maximum waiting times would be achieved. In June, the HSE reported a performance against the 18 month maxima of 99.6% for in-patient/day cases (IP/DC) and 92% for out-patients (OPD).
There are personnel and structural challenges which impact on individual specialties and hospital sites. The impact of ED escalation policies, which require the cancellation of non-essential surgery in order to safely manage demand and capacity, may pose a further challenge which cannot be accurately predicted in advance.
However, the latest NTPF figures, published on Friday 6 November, continue to show improvements. There are reductions in the total In-patient/Daycase waiting list, and in the numbers of patients waiting between 15-18 months and waiting over 18 months. Outpatient improvements are also evident, with a reduction of almost 5,000 in the overall outpatient waiting lists and of over 3,000 in the number of people waiting between 15-18 months for appointments.
This is very positive, as it is the first time that we have seen reductions in all three key categories.
