Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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Question 752: To ask the Minister for Health when a person (details supplied) in County Cork will be called for an MRI; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20384/12]

Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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Question 753: To ask the Minister for Health when the radiology department in Cork University Hospital will respond to representations in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Cork; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20385/12]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 752 and 753 together. The Special Delivery Unit was established in my Department last July to tackle patient wait times for hospital services. Unacceptably high wait times have been tolerated for too long and have become systemic for both unscheduled and scheduled care. The problems have to be tackled step by step so that improvements can be sustained.

Up to now the number of patients waiting for OPD appointment has not been consistently and reliably quantified by all hospitals. The data has simply not been sufficiently accurate to be meaningful at a national level. The SDU has now begun to work with the HSE building a new approach to compiling and validating outpatient lists

The priority for the first quarter of 2012 was for hospitals to support an SDU/NTPF project to establish weekly monitoring of outpatient waiting list numbers. The first task was to collate, analyse and validate the number of outpatient referrals in the system. This work had been well advanced by the HSE during 2011. Once it has been finalised and considered it will enable the SDU to make recommendations to me in respect of an outpatient wait time target in 2012. In principle I will be adopting the same criteria of strict chronological management of the waiting list which is now in place for in-patient treatment.

In relation to the specific query raised by the Deputy, as these are service matters, they have been referred to the HSE for direct reply. Should the patient's general practitioner consider that the patient's condition warrants an earlier appointment, he/she would be in the best position to take the matter up with the consultant and facility involved.