Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 June 2023
1183. Deputy Michael Ring asked the Minister for Health his plans to try to improve the waiting list time for cataract procedures in Galway University Hospital given that the list is now at three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27727/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraIt is recognised that waiting times for many scheduled appointments and procedures were too long before and have been made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Department of Health continues to work with the HSE and the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) to identify ways to improve access to care. On the 7th March, I published the 2023 Waiting List Action Plan, which is the next stage of a new multi-annual approach to sustainably reduce and reform hospital waiting lists, and builds on the foundational work done through the short-term Waiting List Action Plan between September and December 2021, which was followed by the first full year Waiting List Action Plan for 2022, both having reversed the annual trend of rising waiting lists.
The 2023 Plan sets out the priorities to continue to address waiting lists this year. The 30 actions in the Plan, which are governed by the Waiting List Task Force, focus on delivering capacity, reforming scheduled care and enabling scheduled care reform.
For 2023, funding totalling €443 million is being allocated to tackle Waiting Lists with €363 million of this being allocated to the 2023 Waiting List Action Plan, to implement longer term reforms and provide additional public and private activity to clear backlogs exacerbated during the pandemic. This will reduce hospital waiting lists by 10% in 2023 as well as continuing to significantly reduce waiting times in line with Sláintecare recommendations. The remaining €80 million of the €443 million is being targeted at various measures to alleviate community/primary care waiting lists.
With this ambitious 2023 Waiting List Action Plan, my Department, the HSE and the NTPF are taking the next steps in the multi-annual approach towards achieving our vision of a world-class public healthcare system in which everyone has timely and transparent access to high-quality scheduled care, where and when they need it, in line with Sláintecare reforms.
Under the 2023 Waiting List Action Plan, the NTPF will arrange outpatient consultations in public and private hospitals in 2023 through funding overtime and additional staff to provide outpatient clinics out of hours in public hospitals, supporting Virtual Clinics, arranging ‘see and treat’ services where patients receive minor treatments in outpatient clinics and funding diagnostic services when these are required for effective outpatient clinics and supporting the rental of additional space by hospitals in which to hold outpatient clinics.
While the NTPF will seek to arrange over 150 different types of inpatient and day case procedures in public and private hospitals, covering the full range of complexity on waiting lists, there will be a particular focus on 20 procedures, including cataracts. The NTPF will offer treatment for any clinically suitable patient waiting more than 3 months on the IPDC waiting list for these procedures, where there is capacity at appropriate cost in the public or private health systems to deliver the care.
