I propose to take Questions Nos. 1006 to 1033, inclusive, and 1061 to 1074, inclusive, together.
The HSE advise that a pilot project commenced in 2016 by the HSE Acute Hospitals Division to progress the collection of national radiology waiting list data. The project has been supported by the Radiology Clinical Care Programme and has involved key stakeholders across the system including the National NIMIS Team, Hospital Groups, and the support of the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) for data collection and data management expertise
The information requested by the Deputy is outlined in the documents attached, which set out waiting list data for CT, MRI and US. The HSE advise that, at present, the further diagnostic scans requested by the Deputy (including cholangiopancreatography, electroencephalogram, angiogram, and bone scan), are not yet captured as part of this project.
The NTPF further advise that the waiting list data provided should be reviewed in light of the following caveats:
- Data contains urgent, routine and surveillance/planned activity which is currently not broken down in detail, as such this includes surveillance/planned activity which may not be exceeding planned date
- Data is still undergoing validation at Hospital and Hospital Group level
- Data does not take into account local nuances at site level (Site profile developed to support understanding of same)
- The purpose of this aggregate data is to provide a National Level overview of the number of patients waiting for modalities of CT, MR and US.
- This report is not intended to be used for the active management of hospital diagnostics waiting list, local reports and mechanisms should continue to be used for the management of diagnostics waiting lists at hospital level.
Non Nimis Summary Reports Q1 Jan - Mar
National summary report Q1