Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Lombard for raising this issue today. I am taking this Commencement matter and apologise on behalf of my colleague the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris. The Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Daly, could not be here today.

The Minister wishes to acknowledge that waiting times are often unacceptably long and he is conscious of the impact of this on people's lives. Reducing waiting times for the longest waiting patients is one of this Government's key priorities. As the Senator said, the Minister visited CUMH early last year and has seen the valuable service it provides.

Following that visit, he prioritised CUMH among the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, initiatives under last year's inpatient day case waiting list action plan. Funding of over €200,000 was drawn down by CUMH ensuring the provision of treatment to 52 patients.

In recent years, CUMH has received funding to invest in the improvement of its gynaecology services. The South/South West Hospital Group, SSWHG, committed an additional €700,000 to the service for 2017 to provide increased theatre capacity and staffing resources to deliver improved waiting times for inpatient day case treatment and outpatient appointments. In 2018, an additional €400,000 development funding has also been allocated to CUMH gynaecology services. Last year also saw the strengthening of the management, organisation and delivery of maternity, gynaecological and neonatal services following the establishment of the national women and infants health programme within the Health Service Executive, HSE. This programme is developing a plan for the provision of gynaecology services. In addition, the SSWHG, in conjunction with CUMH, has developed a phased approach to improve waiting times for its gynaecology services. This includes the establishment of the SSWHG women and children services directorate last year, which, the Minister expects, will ensure better co-ordination and utilisation of maternity gynaecological resources across the group.

The waiting list data from the NTPF for the end of April 2018 indicate that there were 410 people waiting for CUMH gynaecology inpatient services. This marks a decrease of more than 14% on the numbers waiting this time last year. The outpatient waiting list data indicate there were just over 3,600 people waiting for gynaecology services at the end of April. CUMH has seen improvements year on year with a decrease of more than 22% on the numbers waiting this time last year.

More broadly, the inpatient day case action plan 2018, which was published in April, outlines the combined impact of HSE and NTPF activity in 2018 to reduce the number of patients waiting for treatment.Under the plan, the HSE will deliver 1.14 million hospital procedures. The NTPF will deliver 20,000 inpatient day case treatments through both outsourcing and HSE insourcing. The NTPF and the HSE will invite proposals from hospitals for waiting list initiatives. The NTPF will provide funding for the solutions proposed, if appropriate.

It is clear that the infrastructure put in place for gynaecology services by the South/South West Hospital Group, together with the investment in Cork University Maternity Hospital, is starting to reap some improvements in the waiting lists. However, there is always room for further improvement. This year’s inpatient day case action plan provides the vehicle for them to engage with the NTPF to submit proposals for waiting list initiatives for both inpatient-day case and outpatient procedures.