Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 7 December 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health
Sláintecare Implementation: Discussion (Resumed)
Mr. Damien McCallion:
That summarises it. The one thing I would add is that there are three legs to the waiting list action plan. The first is in the core work in trying to get more value out of what we have in the system already, such as the resources and theatres and so on. The second is the various modernisation initiatives around policies and technology and so on. The third is some of the clinical pathways in terms of trying to change the models of where people are treated. There are some really good examples like ophthalmology. Dr. Henry might want to speak to some of those. There is a range of examples of those that are also going to be rolled out. The core reason at the start of the year was the impact of Covid, including staff absences, and also the impact on the system. We will see typically that the winter period obviously brings pressure on scheduled as the hospitals have to prioritise emergency care.
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