Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Lahart for raising this important matter. He has highlighted an issue that we need to get on top of and I think I have some news in that regard today. Improving waiting times for hospital procedures and outpatient appointments is a key commitment in the programme for Government and a key priority of mine. As the Deputy is aware, we increased the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, budget to €50 million this year. By any objective analysis, that has seen progress in the time it takes to get a hospital operation or procedure. We now need to do the same for outpatients because the outpatient waiting list is still a significant cause of concern. As a result, I recently allocated €3 million from the NTPF to fund outpatient initiatives and my Department, the HSE and the NTPF are in the process of finalising those actions. All hospital groups have been invited by the HSE and the NTPF to bring forward proposals for specific outpatient initiatives for inclusion in this action plan. This plan will support the HSE's compliance with its national service plan targets and will aim to reduce the growth in the size of outpatient lists and, similarly to what we did with inpatients last year, seek to reduce the number over a period.

Tallaght University Hospital advises me that from January to May 2018, there have been a total of 3,925 neurology outpatient attendances, an increase of 18% on the same period in 2017. In fairness to the hospital, it is certainly increasing its level of activity, up 18% on last year with regard to the number of neurology appointments. The good news is that it will take actions to reduce the outpatient waiting times. It recently held a number of improvement workshops to agree these actions and what it will do to implement them to reverse the trends in neurology. I am pleased to say that a new, on-site, general practitioner, GP, led headache clinic is due to be established in the next few weeks at Tallaght Hospital. Registrar and advanced nurse practitioner clinics in neurology will begin in the last quarter of this year. This will enable consultants to increase the numbers of new patients seen at clinics as a number of repeat appointments can be seen by advanced nurse practitioners and registrars. The hospital is also investigating the possibility of launching consultant-led clinics in Naas Hospital and transferring appropriate appointments to that service. There are three practical actions that the hospital is due to commence. The on-site GP-led headache clinic, which will commence in the next few weeks at the hospital, will be welcome to many with regard to trying to triage and reduce the number of outpatients, while one can target those awaiting a consultant appointment.

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