Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is worth noting that there are 3.2 million outpatient attendances at hospitals every year, that 100,000 patients have elective inpatient procedures and that 800,000 have planned day-care procedures. The number of patients who are waiting to be seen or treated, while unacceptably high, needs to be considered in the context of the total number of patients who are seen and treated.

The programme for Government commits to €50 million in 2017 for waiting list initiatives, with at least €15 million of this money allocated specifically to the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, which the Deputy has raised on a number of occasions. In direct response to those increases, the HSE has provided the Minister for Health with an action plan - to be implemented in the second half of this year - that is aimed at reducing the number of patients on waiting lists. Key actions of that plan include: clinical validation of patients waiting for inpatient or day-case procedures for over 15 months; focusing specifically on providing procedures for the 5% of patients on inpatient and day-case procedure waiting lists for over 18 months; and driving the process of improvement at hospital group and individual hospital level with the support of the special development unit.

Data has shown improvements in the overall endoscopy situation and in the waiting lists relating to and waiting times for endoscopy of 15 months. The Minister recently opened endoscopy units at the Beacon Hospital and Roscommon County Hospital. The Minister is conscious of the major role of the endoscopy procedure, both in advancing the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases and as a diagnostic and investigative tool significantly improving outcomes for patients. I will advise Deputy Martin in respect of the performance indicator system to which he refers.

See this speech in context