James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In 2012 the National Treatment Purchase Fund initiated a national project to compile, for the first time, an outpatient waiting list database based on patient-level information from individual hospitals. Collaborating with individual hospitals, the NTPF, together with the special delivery unit, SDU, in the HSE, has developed the outpatient waiting list minimum data set that allows for these data to be submitted to the NTPF from hospitals on a weekly basis. This builds on the work previously undertaken by the HSE outpatient data quality programme. Clear data on the outpatient waiting list are now being reported for the first time. It is rather astonishing that for the first time in the history of the State we have actually gone to the trouble of counting the number of people who have to wait on an outpatient list before they can see a consultant to get on a list for whatever treatment a consultant might consider appropriate. The waiting list for outpatients is updated monthly. The data show numbers waiting over the various time-bands for a first appointment at a consultant-led clinic. In a further enhancement of the reporting, future updates will for the first time include numbers reported by specialty in addition to the breakdown by hospital. Currently, the focus is on ensuring that hospitals continue the validation of waiting lists. All hospitals have been engaged in this process, which is expected to be complete by the middle of this month.

Reform of the delivery of outpatient services is being addressed through the outpatient service performance improvement programme. This programme encompasses the HSE, the SDU, the NTPF and all hospitals providing outpatient services. It is a national programme which is being implemented between 2012 and 2015. The overall aim of the programme is to ensure timely and appropriate access to outpatient services so that the most appropriate member of the clinical team sees the right patient at the right time. Key elements of this large programme of reform will include: ongoing validation of waiting lists; systematic and standardised management of referrals from primary care; a reduction in unacceptably high non-attendance rates; appropriate discharging from outpatient services when clinically appropriate; and strict chronological management of the longest waiters.

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For 2013, a maximum waiting-time target of 12 months has been set for a first-time consultant-led outpatient appointment and this is reflected in the HSE service plan. The total number of people waiting on the outpatient waiting list as at 3 May 2013 was 376,751. This is a reduction of 7,881 in comparison with the NTPF-published figures to March 2013. The data also show that of the total number of people waiting, 199,513, or 52.6%, have been waiting less than six months and almost 278,666, or 74%, have been waiting less than 12 months.

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