Written answers

Wednesday, 17 October 2007

Department of Health and Children

Hospital Waiting Lists

9:00 pm

Photo of James ReillyJames Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Question 179: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her views on hospital waiting list figures which were exposed in the media recently; the steps she will take to reduce waiting lists; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24456/07]

Photo of Mary HarneyMary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The figures cited recently in the media as being on hospital waiting lists included patients waiting less than three months for their procedure.

It has long been the practice, under several Governments, not to include patients waiting for hospital treatment for less than 3 months in published waiting list statistics. For example, in 1997, about 32,000 patients were on such waiting lists for elective treatment. The population was about 3.7 million. The total number of acute hospital in-patient treatments was 796,000. Now the population is 4.2 million, total acute hospital discharges are about 1.1 million, and the comparable number of people waiting for procedures is 21,403. This counts some procedures that were not included in 1997.

As a proportion of population and as a proportion of hospital discharges, the number of people waiting is down by approximately 40 and 50 per cent respectively. Specifically, I have been advised by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) that, at the end of September, the number of adults waiting for more than 3 months was 19,083 and the number of children was 2,320; a total of 21,403. For the most common procedures, adults and children tend to wait 2-5 months, compared with 2-5 years before the advent of the NTPF in 2002.

The NTPF and the HSE will continue to address the issue of hospital waiting lists to seek to ensure that patients do not have to wait for unacceptably long periods to obtain the treatment that they require.

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