Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

While we are focusing on trolley numbers, we must not lose sight of the importance of effective management of waiting lists because, as we know, today's cancelled operations are potentially tomorrow's emergency department presentations. The health service must balance planned and emergency care needs to prevent delays in diagnosing or treating illness which could result in greater needs for emergency intervention next week, next month or next year.

In January 2015, I set maximum waiting times for inpatient and day case treatment and outpatient appointments of 18 months by 30 June and 15 months by the end of the year. The HSE was provided with additional funding in the region of €50 million to facilitate achievement of these maximum wait times. It was acknowledged throughout that this may not be possible in the case of some sub-specialties due to the non-availability of specialist staff in the public or private sector and that some patients would decide to wait for a particular consultant, rather than being sent for private treatment.

The National Treatment Purchase Fund waiting list data, published on Friday last week, show significant progress was made in 2015 in reducing the numbers of patients on waiting lists. The data show that the numbers are at their lowest point in more than one year.

At the end of December 2015 the HSE achieved 95% compliance for the inpatient and day-case waiting lists and 93% compliance for the outpatient waiting lists against the 15 months maximum wait time threshold. It is particularly evident from the data that progress has been made in addressing the needs of those patients who are waiting longest. On the inpatient and day-case waiting lists, the number of patients waiting over 15 months reduced by 77% during December and the number of patients waiting over 18 months reduced by 70%.

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