Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of Minister Harris, I thank the Senator for raising this issue.

With respect to Galway orthopaedic services, trauma services are provided in University Hospital Galway and elective cases are treated at Merlin Park University Hospital.The most recent NTPF figures indicate there are 796 patients waiting for orthopaedic inpatient or day-case treatment in Galway University Hospital. Of these, 37, or 5%, have been waiting for more than 24 months. Three patients, which represent less than 1%, have been waiting for more than 36 months. The Saolta University Health Care Group advises that a review of orthopaedic services is currently under way across the group. Findings from the review will be forthcoming shortly. It can assure the House there have been concerted efforts to address waiting lists and reduce waiting times for orthopaedic services at Galway University Hospitals. A musculoskeletal physiotherapy service has been put in place and is being expanded to manage approximately 240 referrals per month. Patients are triaged and, as determined by their consultant, are seen by the physiotherapist. Galway University Hospitals also provides a dedicated orthopaedic pre-assessment service, which helps to ensure patients are appropriately assessed prior to surgery and that appropriate discharge planning is in place following surgery. There are currently nine full-time consultant orthopaedic surgeons in position in GaIway. Two additional surgeons, one with a special interest in paediatrics and the other in spinal surgery, are due to be appointed in March and September 2017.

Reducing waiting times for the longest waiting patients is one of the Government’s key priorities. It is for this reason that €20 million was allocated to the NTPF in budget 2017 which will rise to €55 million in 2018. Last December 2016, the Minister, Deputy Harris, granted approval to the NTPF for a day-case waiting list initiative, with the aim to ensure that no patient will be waiting more than 18 months by 30 June 2017. More than 2,000 day cases will be managed through the process and appointments under this initiative will be issued shortly. The HSE is due to submit waiting list action plans for inpatient day cases and outpatient waiting lists shortly. The focus of these plans should be to ensure that no patient on either list is waiting more than 15 months by the end of October 2017. The HSE has been requested to develop the inpatient day-case waiting list action plan in conjunction with and supported by the NTPF's approach for utilisation of the remaining €10 million of the 2017 funding for patient treatment. These plans are being finalised and the Minister, Deputy Harris, expects to receive them imminently. When requesting the waiting list action plans, the Minister raised concerns about the waiting times across a number of specialties in Galway University Hospitals. He expects that particular focus will be on Galway waiting times as part of the forthcoming action plans.