Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Nolan for raising the issue to which I will respond on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly.

University Hospital Galway has two consultants who provide a pain management clinic in the hospital. These are consultants who specialise in anaesthesia, 50% of whose time is allocated specifically to pain management. Two pain clinic sessions take place each week. In addition, the pain clinic has weekly theatre access for interventional and non-interventional procedures. To support this service, the hospital has provided a resource of three clinical nurse specialists whose time is divided between acute and chronic pain management for both inpatients and those attending the clinics on an outpatient basis. All pain clinic patients can contact the nurses by phone or bleep.

Escalation protocols are also in place to address changes in patient symptoms. If patients are on the outpatient waiting list and their symptoms worsen they can contact their GP who can liaise with the consultants directly. If patients with chronic pain have an acute exacerbation of their symptoms they can attend the emergency department. If existing patients are experiencing any difficulties or worsening symptoms they can contact directly the clinical nurse specialists for pain relief. Patients who have received interventional pain treatment and require a repeat procedure are returned to the waiting list and are prioritised if cancellations occur.

It is regrettable that a small number of patients have encountered delays in receiving appointments for the pain clinic. However, in line with the strict policies introduced by the Department of Health, patients are added to the pain clinic waiting list according to their referral date, and patients are taken off the list according to clinical priority and referral date. Since assuming office, the Minister, Deputy Reilly, has made it clear that priority must be given to taking care of those patients waiting the longest. Once the most urgent cases are treated, hospitals must devote their capacity to treating the longest waiters in a strict chronological order, which is the fairest approach. Progress on waiting lists shows that even with reduced budgets and staffing levels, clear, well informed targets assist hospitals to be effective.

Within the past week there has been a reduction in the overall waiting lists across the country of 16%; in University Hospital Galway itself, access for procedures has improved by 40% since 2011; most notably, considering the difficulties it was encountering in December last year, the hospital achieved the nine month primary targeting list for inpatient waiting lists on 30 September 2012. On behalf of the Minister I thank all the staff involved and acknowledge their dedication and commitment to those significant achievements.

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