Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Health if he will outline the activities of the Special Delivery Unit since it has been introduced under his stewardship, his plans for the development of further services in line with the Special Delivery Unit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40827/12]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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In July of last year I announced the establishment of the Special Delivery Unit as a key part of my plans to radically reform the health system in Ireland. The Unit’s purpose is to improve access to the emergency and elective care system. Since it was established last year, it has been working to unblock access to acute services by improving patient journeys through the system and by streamlining waiting lists, including GP referrals. I am pleased to be able to say that very significant progress has been made to date by the SDU in relation to both emergency departments and waiting lists.

A major priority has been to improve access to emergency care and I welcome the fact that for significant numbers of patients, the experience in our EDs has been markedly improved. From January to September, the number of patients waiting on trolleys fell by 22.9% compared to the same period last year - that equates to 14,795 fewer patients. The 30 day moving average (average number of trolleys over 30 days) has fallen by 37.5% in 12 months, from 328 on 19 September 2011 to 205 on 21 September 2012.

In regard to scheduled care, the other important priority so far has been to tackle waiting times for in-patient and daycase treatment and there has been significant progress in this area also. Since the SDU was formed in July 2011:

- overall waiting list numbers have fallen by 7%

- the number of adults having to wait more than 12 months is down 85%

- the number of adults having to wait more than 9 months is down by 63%

- the number of children having to wait more than 20 weeks has fallen by 61%

In regard to waiting times for routine GI endoscopy services (i.e. scopes), which the SDU began to tackle in May 2012, I am pleased to say that the overall

waiting lists have fallen from 13,349 people to 8, 904, a drop of 33%. In addition, the numbers waiting more than three months have fallen by 66% from

5,062 people to 1,711 people.

In relation to waiting lists, the next priority for the SDU will be to focus on outpatients. Together with the NPTF, it will take over the collection and analysis of outpatient waiting list data from the HSE from October. This will involve the systematic collection of waiting time data at an individual patient level in a standardised format from all hospitals providing a consultant-led outpatient service. The collation and analysis of outpatient waiting time data in this standardised format will enable the SDU and NTPF to target resources towards those patients who are waiting longest and ensure that they are seen and assessed. Until then, data on outpatient waiting times are not available by specialty.

The SDU’s focus in relation to unscheduled care is now moving to patient journey time (attendance to admission/discharge) with the aim that 95% of ED attendees are discharged or admitted within 6 hours of registration and nobody waits more than 9 hours. The SDU is also working intensively to develop best practice hospital sites for patient pathways through unscheduled care.