Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I look forward to working with Deputy Kelleher in his role as his party's spokesperson on health, a role he has carried out for a number of years.

Improving access for patients is a key objective for our public health service. The 2016 HSE service plan undertakes to maintain 2015 levels of service in respect of scheduled care and to continue to address waiting times as part of the regular performance and accountability process. The HSE seeks to ensure that those whose clinical needs are most urgent are prioritised accordingly, while managing the needs of those who have been waiting longest for routine treatment in chronological order. Currently, 94% of patients wait less than the maximum waiting time of 15 months for inpatient, day case or outpatient procedures, with over 60% of patients waiting less than six months for their required care.

A scheduled care governance group has been established within the HSE to co-ordinate key initiatives to reduce waiting times and the number of patients awaiting treatment. Actions overseen by this group include driving greater adherence to chronological scheduling, relocation of low complexity surgical procedures to smaller hospitals and administrative and clinical validation procedures to ensure that patients are available for treatment. All too often, I have heard stories of people who have passed away remaining on a waiting list and the difficulty this has caused for their family and for the accuracy of the list.

Each hospital group has been mandated to designate a key person to lead and support waiting list management improvements so as to advance towards compliance with maximum waiting times. The National Treatment Purchase Fund supports the management of inpatient, day case and outpatient waiting lists, by working with the HSE to assist hospitals in developing local demand and capacity planning and providing technical guidance materials to ensure the highest standard of data quality and practice.

My Department is currently engaging with the NTPF and the HSE on a focused plan for endoscopy waiting lists in 2016. The programme for Government and the supply and confidence arrangement with Fianna Fáil contain a commitment to reactivate the NTPF and to provide €15 million in 2017 to address waiting lists. My Department will engage with the NTPF and the HSE in this regard.

See this speech in context