Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Health the steps that will be taken to address the excessive waiting list for paediatric services in Letterkenny Hospital County Donegal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [57018/12]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Unblocking access to acute hospitals is a key aim of this Government, and of the Special Delivery Unit established by the Minister for Health. The SDU was set up immediately following the Minister’s appointment and the initial focus for the SDU's Scheduled Care Team has been on waiting times for in-patient and daycase elective surgery. For children, the target is that by the end of 2012 no child should be waiting for inpatient or daycase treatment for more than 20 weeks. Huge progress has been made towards this target – on 13 December, there were just 234 children waiting longer than 20 weeks compared with 1,759 at the end of December 2011. Improving access to outpatient services is the next priority for the Government. Building on work already undertaken by the HSE, the NTPF has now taken over the reporting of outpatient waiting time data. The collation and analysis of outpatient waiting time data in a standardised format will reveal the distribution of long waiters across all hospitals. In the first instance, this will allow the SDU and NTPF to target their resources towards those patients who are waiting longest and ensure that they are seen and assessed. A maximum waiting time target has now been set of 12 months for a first time outpatient appointment by 30 November 2013. In parallel with reducing the numbers of longest waiters, the SDU will also work with the HSE Clinical Programmes to reform the structure, organisation and delivery of outpatient services to ensure that the right patient is seen and assessed by the right health professional at the right time. In relation to the specific query raised by the Deputy, as this is a service matter it has been referred to the HSE for direct reply.