Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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52. To ask the Minister for Health when follow-up funding will be provided for the patients of Letterkenny General Hospital, County Donegal, who were outsourced under the 2013 outpatients initiative, and who are still awaiting their follow-up treatment; if these patients will have their treatment continued in the hospital to which they were referred under the initiative; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7899/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The HSE has advised that all patients from the 2013 waiting list initiative who have not been seen, diagnosed, treated and discharged back to their GP have all been accepted back to Letterkenny General Hospital on their appropriate waiting list. This includes the surgical pre assessment, day surgery and in-patient surgical waiting lists. These patients will be treated within the hospital's service and budget for 2015.

For some outsourced patients, the treating consultant required further review to either verify their clinical requirements or perform further diagnostic tests. Patients requiring review were reinstated on the public waiting list to have them scheduled for treatment in chronological order. All paediatric patients concerned have already received treatment.

Improving waiting lists for inpatient and day case treatment is a key priority for me and for the Government. The HSE has already put in place specific measures to address waiting lists more efficiently in collaboration with acute hospitals. These include observation of the national waiting list protocol (2014), adherence to relevant HSE National Clinical Programme guidelines and prioritising day of surgery admission where clinically appropriate.

My Department is working with the HSE to put in place a plan to eliminate very long waiters by the end of the year. This will involve both operational improvements and better waiting list management.