Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will respond first to Deputy Niall Collins. I will ask the CEO of the children's hospital group to revert to the Deputy directly about Megan's situation, because she would be better placed than me to do so. I will arrange for that to happen.

I agree with Deputy Murphy O'Mahony about utilising our smaller hospitals. That is the reason I said earlier that part of the HSE's plan for this year must be about hospital groups. Where some of our larger, level four hospitals are busy there is no reason that there cannot be more elective procedures carried out in the others. I expect that to be a feature of the HSE's waiting list action plan, which we will publish at the end of the month.

With regard to issues such as cataract procedures, raised by Deputy O'Dowd, these are part of the more than 2,000 day case procedures that will be carried out with €5 million of funding from the NTPF. That will start in March. The Deputy is correct with regard to CUMH. I spoke about this yesterday on the Claire Byrne programme. I am concerned about what has happened in CUMH and I have asked the new clinical director of maternity services to report to me on that matter.

I intend to publish an action plan for scoliosis and I will take what Deputy Aylward said on board in that context. The plan for scoliosis will take on board the concerns of the advocacy groups and will dramatically reduce waiting times and waiting lists for scoliosis treatment for children and teenagers in this country. That is what we all wish to do and I will make sure we do it. If that involves outsourcing, we will do that also.

I have asked the NTPF to audit the practices in each of the hospitals featured in the "RTE Investigates" programme. I have asked it to use its audit function and check exactly how the waiting list procedure was dealt with and if everything was done correctly. We saw one case where there was a clinical note and the child did not go on a waiting list for a period of eight months. What happened there is not acceptable. I look forward to the results of the NTPF audit, which today I directed it to undertake.

Deputy Murphy O'Mahony spoke about performance and accountability. I believe managers must be accountable. I am the Minister for Health, so I set policy and provide funding. Then I expect our managers to get on with doing the job. I have written to the director general to ask how each of the managers across the health service measure up in respect of performance and accountability not just on the financial side, which they are good at measuring, but also with regard to access to services.

To respond to Deputy Mick Barry about the lists, this is the same way the NTPF has calculated the list since it was set up in 2002 by the then Minister. There is nothing new here. Did I know, and did many Members of the House who have been talking about health for a long time know, that when people have their procedures and an appointment for a procedure they do not appear on the waiting list? I did. Did I know the size of that? I did not. Did I know there was a specific other list? I did not. However, I am concerned about the people who do not have appointments for hospitals and who clinically need procedures and about getting that done as quickly as possible. We are going to make serious inroads and, in response to Deputy Lahart, I did not mean to talk about scoliosis alone. Across a range of issues we will utilise the NTPF and the capacity in our public hospitals. We will hold our managers to account. I hope we will work in a cross-party way to address these serious issues.

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