Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are 760,394 patients on acute hospital inpatient day case, outpatient and gastrointestinal scope waiting lists, as published by the NTPF. I recognise that a higher figure of more than 900,000 is regularly used and it is important to note that this figure includes just under 150,000 patients who already have scheduled care. The NTPF figure we should be most concerned with is the 760,394 patients.

The Deputy asked what there is on top of that. With regard to the number of patients waiting for diagnostics, it should be noted that many of these are surveillance patients. That means these patients are due a scheduled diagnostic test at a future time. It also includes patients in treatment who need an associated diagnostic test and patients who are awaiting a diagnostic test for the first time. These are the patients the Deputy and I are probably most interested in. I emphasise that we have a diagnostics waiting list of 224,538 and that this is raw data. It includes all these groups and has not been centrally validated, which is why it does not form part of the NTPF’s published reports.

Regardless of the precise answer to the question, the figures are stark and we can all agree that they are unacceptable. They were unacceptable prior to the start of Covid-19 and, as we all know, they have been exacerbated by two big events. I have outlined my plans for dealing with waiting lists. I published the acute waiting list action plan on 7 October and the plan will run to the end of this year. It includes 150,000 waiting list-related interventions. I can give more detail in my supplementary response.

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