Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 January 2021
828. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the inpatient and outpatient waiting list numbers and waiting times as presented in National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, data by each group and hospital for each discipline and each speciality, separated by adults and children in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44962/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn relation to the matter raised by the Deputy, the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) has advised that each hospital supplies a weekly Waiting List extract to the NTPF in accordance with the defined Inpatient / Day Case and Outpatient Waiting List Minimum Dataset (MDS). One of the fields in this dataset is the Date of Birth of the patient.
In the Irish health system, patients are generally referred for children’s hospital services up to the eve of their 16th birthday, however, there are exceptions. The NTPF classify children / adults as follows:
- Child only hospitals – all patients are classed as children, regardless of age.
- Adult only hospitals – all patients are classed as adults, regardless of age.
- Adult and Child Hospitals – patients under the age of 16 are classed as children, all other patients are classed as adults.
The attached tables provide a breakdown of the Inpatient, Day Case and Outpatient waiting lists by Adult and Child by hospital at the end of November 2020. Also provided are the IPDC and OPD waiting lists by specialty at the end of November 2020.
The NTPF currently publishes the Adult and Child Analysis for the Inpatient and Day Case waiting lists on the NTPF website monthly and has advised that they are currently working on the separation of adult and child waiting lists and plan to be in a position to publish these reports in Q1 2021.
