Improving waiting times for hospital procedures is a key commitment in the Programme for Government and the recently launched Inpatient/Day Case Action Plan 2018 marks a very important milestone in delivering on this commitment.
The action plan outlines the steps being taken by Government to reduce the number of patients waiting for hospital operations or procedures.
Under the action plan 2018:
- the number of patients waiting longer than 9 months will fall by 10,000.
- the NTPF commits to offer treatment to all patients waiting more than 9 months for treatment in a number of high volume specialities - including cataract, hip and knee replacement, tonsils and scopes
- The overall number of patients waiting for hospital operations and procedures will fall to under 70,000 by year end, from a peak of 86,100 in July 2017.
As part of the plan, all patients who are waiting more than 9 months for a cataract, hip and/or knee replacement, tonsils, gastro intestinal scope or one of four other high-volume treatments will be offered treatment in 2018 if clinically suitable.
In 2018 the NTPF to deliver 20,000 inpatient day case treatments and 4,000 gastro intestinal scopes, in addition to the 1.14 million hospital operations or procedures the HSE plans to deliver.