Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am very disappointed with the Minister's response because he has not indicated that follow-up funding will be provided for these patients to continue their treatment with the consultant who has already seen them in a private capacity.

Under the 2013 outpatient waiting list initiative, which was a previous initiative by the Government to try to address the long waiting lists, more than 3,000 patients were referred out of Letterkenny General Hospital for private consultant appointments. Of those 3,000, approximately half were discharged back to their general practitioner. There are 1,500 others, and I listed them in the question, who need surgery, diagnostics or follow-up patient reviews and for whom Letterkenny General Hospital and the HSE were expecting to be able to provide follow-on funding to allow them continue their care with the consultant who had already seen them. That follow-on funding has not been provided and those 1,500 patients are now being put back on waiting lists in Letterkenny General Hospital, but those waiting lists have got longer in recent months because of the accident and emergency department situation.

One measure the Minister could propose to help address the waiting list problem in this hospital immediately would be to provide the follow-up funding for these patients to continue their care with the consultant who has already seen them, is aware of their case and has diagnosed the follow-on treatment or diagnostics required. Unfortunately, the Minister seems not to be doing that. I would point out to the Minister that of any hospital in the country, Letterkenny General Hospital has the largest number of patients waiting more than two years to see an outpatient consultant, yet the Minister is putting these patients back on these hospital waiting lists by not providing the funding for them to continue their care. I urge the Minister to take action today to provide that funding.

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