Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I accept that any waiting list is never satisfactory because the patient must wait. As Deputy Martin pointed out, the programme for Government emphasises the need for a sustained commitment to improve waiting lists for patients, with a particular focus on those who have had to wait longest. The Department of Health will engage with the National Treatment Purchase Fund to deliver on that €15 million funding for an initiative targeted at those waiting the longest, with the continuing investment of €50 million per year to deal with waiting lists. I understand the Department is currently engaged with the National Treatment Purchase Fund and the Health Service Executive, HSE, is planning a dedicated waiting list initiative to be rolled out later this year.

The issue for patients is how long they must wait. Improving waiting times for scheduled or planned care for patients is absolutely key. The action taken by the previous Minister resulted in improvements. In 2015, some €51 million in additional funding was provided to address maximum waiting times of 18 months by 30 June and 15 months by year-end for inpatient, day and outpatient cases. The end of 2015 demonstrated a 95% achievement for inpatient and day case waiting lists and a 93% improvement for outpatient waiting lists against the 15 months maximum wait times. This year, the HSE service plan undertakes to maintain the 2015 levels of service in respect of scheduled care.

In 2016, the HSE's scheduled care governance group is focusing on a number of key areas, including ensuring that the chronological scheduling of cases is adhered to, putting in place validation procedures to ensure patients are available for treatment when they are deemed to be for treatment and relocating high-volume low-complexity surgeries to smaller hospitals. Many consultants have said to me they could do more work if some procedures of lower complexity were shifted to smaller hospitals. The group is also focusing on designating an improvement lead for each hospital group to provide support in meeting the national targets both for appointments and treatments.

There is an extra €800 million in the health system because the state of the economy has improved and that, in turn, will lead to improvements in a number of sectors. That money was not available before to deal with these very necessary cases.

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