Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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Question 191: To ask the Minister for Health if he will examine the length of the current waiting lists that persons are being subjected to in the public health system, which are causing great distress, especially to people waiting as long as two years; his plans to deal with this problem in view of the fact that he has abolished the National Treatment Purchase Fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23528/12]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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In addition to the response the Deputy received on foot of his recent question, I would like to take the opportunity to advise the Deputy of current developments in relation to out patient appointments.

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

One of the priorities for 2012 is for hospitals to support an SDU/NTPF project to establish weekly monitoring of outpatient waiting list numbers. The first task is to collate, analyse and validate the number of outpatient referrals in the system. This work has 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 maximum wait time target.

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 and day case treatment. These developments together with the ongoing work being undertaken to reduce elective waiting lists and trolley times will significantly improve the overall waiting times for access to health services.