Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Clonan for raising this important issue. Senator Clonan knows there is probably no issue closer to my heart than the experience of children in hospital in Ireland and I am glad to have the opportunity to provide the answer I have been given by the Department to the Senator.

First, in respect of the experience of the children, additional needs, whether they be medical, personal, intellectual or whatever they may be, makes growing up much more difficult. That and their dignity throughout the hospital process is paramount. If there are issues that can be resolved reasonably easily – forgive me, I am not a medical person and do not know – one would think the personal hygiene and care that can be made better by surgical intervention of particular importance is. It is an important issue. I understand the mental health and developmental issues that are aligned to the surgical issues as much as anything else. That is why it is so important that the Senator is raising this.

I am told by the Department that Children’s Health Ireland, CHI, has advised that there are 163 types of procedures carried out by its urology team in Crumlin, Temple Street and Tallaght hospitals. They have three full-time urology consultants working on the service supported by a multidisciplinary team, MDT. The onboarding of the third consultant has created additional capacity to allow consultants to attend all spina bifida MDT clinics in Temple Street. Urological procedures are also carried out by general surgical teams.

In the past year, CHI has undertaken work to reduce the number of patients on the waiting lists for hypospadias – forgive me if I pronounced it incorrectly – surgery repairs. A significant number of single-stage and multistage procedures have been converted from inpatient admissions to day care procedures, which makes a big difference. This change in patient care has allowed an increase in the number of those procedures happening throughout the system. Additionally, the HSE has recently approved a fourth urology consultant post, which will allow for the creation of a separate urology call rota from general surgery once the new children’s hospital has opened. I agree with the Senator’s sentiment in respect of cost. When you are the parent of a child in hospital for a very long period, you know exactly how important it is and the care that will be provided to children there will be incredibly important.

On waiting lists, it is important to set this on the record today so that we can compare it with figures in the future. The national treatment purchase fund waiting list figures for January 2024 show there are 1,135 patients on the outpatient urology waiting list in CHI. Of those, 55% are waiting six months or less and 87% are waiting 12 months or less. I am told the waiting list has decreased by 6% when compared with the same period last year.

Regarding inpatient and day case procedures, the January 2024 figures show there are 476 patients waiting for a urology procedure at CHI. Of those, 40% are waiting six months or less and 74% are waiting 12 months or less. The inpatient and day case waiting list has increased by 23% when compared with the same period last year and there has been a decrease of 5% so far this year. Forgive me as I am not sure exactly how that works. The figures also show a decrease of 5% since December 2023 in the numbers waiting outside the 12-week target.

I am informed that the Minister accepts that acute hospital waiting lists are too long and that many patients are waiting unacceptably long time. He is aware of the impact that can have on children and families, so he has adopted a multi-annual approach through a series of waiting list action plans. Those 2023 plans built on the foundational work in previous plans. We are seeing significant reductions in some waiting lists but not all waiting lists. In some waiting lists, there are considerable improvements. From my own constituency, I know that some waiting lists have improved considerably. The overall waiting list reduction was achieved in 2023 despite 8% more patients being added to our waiting lists than was projected last year. Obviously, there is significant additional work to be done in 2024.

Perhaps the Senator has more details that I can pass to the Minister.