Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I fully recognise the need to ensure that patients have timely access to health services. The Department of Health works closely with the Health Service Executive and the national treatment purchase fund to ensure that they implement measures to reduce waiting times. Budget 2017 makes specific provision for the treatment of those waiting the longest. In this regard, €20 million has been allocated to the national treatment purchase fund, rising to €55 million in 2018. In December, the Minister, Deputy Harris, granted approval to the national treatment purchase fund for a €5 million initiative focusing on day case procedures which will aim to ensure that no patient is waiting more than 18 months for a day case procedure, including gynaecology, by 30 June 2017. The Minister has also asked the Health Service Executive to submit a waiting list action plan for 2017 in respect of both the inpatient day case and outpatient waiting lists. The focus of these plans should be to ensure that no patient is waiting more than 15 months by the end of October 2017.

This week the Minister, Deputy Harris, wrote to the Health Service Executive requesting that in developing these action plans a particular focus be given to reducing waiting times in gynaecology. I am aware that there are difficulties with waiting times for gynaecology services in Cork University Hospital in particular. On 12 January the Minister visited the hospital to meet with hospital management, south-south west hospital group management and a number of consultant obstetricians and gynaecologists.This allowed him to learn at first hand about these problems, which are in part due to staff resource challenges including those associated with recruiting theatre staff nurses. He has asked his officials in the Department of Health to work closely with the Health Service Executive and the hospital group to ensure the waiting list for gynaecology procedures is addressed as a priority in advance of his follow-up meeting. The hospital has advised that the provision of additional gynaecology operating capacity is a priority for the executive management board, as is the optimisation of operating output from theatre sessions which are already in place. In that regard, the board is working with the gynaecology department and the hospital group to maximise capacity in the theatre sessions already in place, to recruit additional theatre staff nurses to provide additional theatre time and to progress the introduction of pre-admission assessment for these patients to improve efficiencies and patient flow.

The governance structures for our maternity services are currently being remodelled with the establishment of the Health Service Executive's national women and infants health programme and maternity networks across the hospital groups. The programme will lead the management, organisation and delivery of maternity, gynaecological and neonatal services to ensure the consistent delivery of high quality care in these services and oversee the development of maternity networks. The Minister, Deputy Harris, has advised me that he expects that the new maternity network, which is currently being established in the south-south west hospital group, will ensure better coordination and utilisation of maternity and gynaecological resources across the group.