Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

According to NTPF data, 60% of patients wait for less than six months for the required outpatient appointment or inpatient day case procedure. At present, 91% of patients wait less than the maximum waiting time of 15 months for inpatient or day case procedures and 92% wait less than 15 months for outpatient appointments. We need to continue to do better but we need to not tie ourselves up in knots about targets. We need to recognise that particular hospitals have particular backlogs and examine what interventions can take place there on the ground with proper management. This is the idea of the action plan.

There is another piece to this, which is whether some of these procedures can take place outside of hospitals. An initiative we are carrying out is to ensure minor operations can be carried out by GPs in the primary care setting. At present, 24 GPs are participating in a programme which will see 10,000 minor operations redirected out of hospitals and back into primary care settings. Above and beyond this, there is also a diagnostic service, particularly with regard to ultrasounds, which is provided by GPs at ten sites nationally. There is a commitment in the programme for Government to support people in purchasing more diagnostic equipment to keep people out of hospitals and outpatient units in the first place and back in primary care.

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