Professor David Keegan:

We have set up a nine-point tracker by means of which we will be held accountable. If we look at the X matrix there, we have listed out a number of metrics that we be held to account on. These relate to referrals, reduction in the total number of patients on our wait list and no outpatients waiting more than 12 months. Some patients are currently some waiting more than 36 months. Also included is reducing the cataract waiting time and reducing the mean cataract waiting time, not just the longest waiters. We are also introducing a mechanism whereby a percentage of patients will receive on-demand care. That will be through our through our eye emergency services and rapid access clinics. This model is working well. The percentage of patients receiving on-demand care will increase significantly over the period.

On training, the number of staff is being looked at. We talk about training and bringing in the number of staff participating in lean transformation events and making sure that we have no unfilled posts. Dr. Rogers just alluded to that as being one the issues in the region. One of the issues in the Mater hospital is when we have funding for a post, we have to fill the post and show the form before we go back asking for money again. We have a finance team that is absolutely determined to keep us on the right track with respect to business cases. This will be the first time clinicians will have had direct access to a full finance team, including coding officers and a health pricing office, in order to have accurate business cases produced that can be accountable after the event. We talk about whether we will do this. There have already been demonstrations between the Grangegorman initiative and CHI at Temple Street around this. I know there are other initiatives planned.