Improving access to hospital treatment is a key priority for Government.
Waiting list figures for December 2018, published last week by the NTPF show that considerable improvements have been made to the number of patients waiting for an Inpatient or Day case procedure which have fallen to 70,204 from the peak of 86,100 in July 2017. This represents a reduction of over 18% in the overall number of patients waiting for a procedure. Furthermore, the number of patients waiting over 9 months has almost halved since July 2017 from 28,100 to 14,900.
My Department is working closely with the NTPF and the HSE to finalise a Scheduled Care Access Plan for inpatients/daycase and outpatients for 2019. In this regard, the NTPF and HSE will continue to work closely with Hospital Groups, inviting proposals to improve access for patients waiting for hospital procedures.
The information requested by the Deputy is set out in the following document.
Total Number of Children Waiting for an Ophthalmology Procedure in Co. Kildare by Year by Wait Time Band 2011-2019
Sum of Total
|
Wait Time Bands
|
Year
|
0-3 Months
|
3-6 Months
|
6-9 Months
|
9-12 Months
|
12 Months +
|
Grand Total
|
2011
|
8
|
12
|
4
|
|
|
24
|
2012
|
18
|
5
|
|
|
|
23
|
2013
|
15
|
5
|
|
|
|
20
|
2014
|
18
|
13
|
4
|
1
|
|
36
|
2015
|
15
|
12
|
4
|
7
|
6
|
44
|
2016
|
12
|
9
|
10
|
7
|
11
|
49
|
2017
|
23
|
9
|
8
|
3
|
9
|
52
|
2018
|
10
|
14
|
3
|
7
|
3
|
37
|
2019
|
11
|
11
|
7
|
7
|
3
|
39
|