Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Minister for Health and Children will be addressing some of these issues tomorrow during Question Time, but the HSE has advised us that colonoscopy scheduling is based on clinical need and that each patient is assessed individually by his general practitioner and referred accordingly. Cases that are classified as urgent are given the next available time slot and patients are usually seen between two to three days and five weeks, depending on their geographical location. There are big differences depending on geographical location. The non-urgent cases are placed on a waiting list and a patient may wait from three to 18 months, again depending on geographical location. The waiting period is based on the level of urgency attached to the case by the doctor.

The waiting time for routine investigations can and will be reduced by making better use of existing capacity. That is the point the Minister for Health and Children made. The head of the cancer control programme, Professor Tom Keane, has said there are many unnecessary follow-up visits for certain patients after treatment and that resources could be far better used for initial investigations for new patients. The professor plans to eliminate such unnecessary follow-up visits in developing clinical practice norms, which he believes will dramatically improve the service.

It is important that clear criteria be applied to distinguish between urgent and routine cases. Significant work has already been undertaken in the area of breast cancer, supported by the Irish College of General Practitioners in respect of referral criteria and the development of appropriate referral forms to allow for appropriate triage of urgent and non-urgent cases. The lists about which we are talking can be very different depending on whether cases are regarded as urgent.

Professor Keane also plans to develop and implement a referral process for other cancers, including colon cancer. Hospitals are working closely with clinicians and the National Treatment Purchase Fund to reduce waiting times. Any patient waiting for over three months can be referred to the National Treatment Purchase Fund. Patients can self-refer or are referred by the hospital to the fund, and hospitals are currently validating their colonoscopy waiting lists by contacting patients on the list and determining whether the procedure is still required by them so that if the procedure is still required, the patient can be assessed for eligibility by the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

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