Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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208. To ask the Minister for Health if details of all hospital consultants outpatient waiting lists will be made publicly available on the grounds of transparency and to ensure the public have a choice in respect to the shortest waiting lists. [6581/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The NTPF maintains national waiting list data for outpatients and inpatient / day cases. These data are published monthly on the NTPF website. Since April 2015, the NTPF has published waiting list data for both the Outpatient and the Inpatient / Day Case waiting list by hospital and by specialty.

The HIQA Report and Recommendations on Patient Referrals from General Practice to Outpatient and Radiology Services, including the National Standard for Patient Referral Information published in 2011 makes a number of recommendation in relation to Secondary Care Referral Management Systems, including that GP should address referrals in the first instance to a central point within a hospital, then to the relevant specialty/service, followed by named consultant if relevant. The report indicates that international evidence suggests that, where possible, patient referrals should be processed at specialty level, with re-allocation of referrals to the consultant within a specialty with the most appropriate experience and training to manage the patient.

In addition, the HSE National Framework for operation and management of Outpatient Departments published in 2013 recommends that referral to a named consultant should be treated as general to the specialty involved, unless it is more appropriate for a particular patient to be managed by a specific consultant.

With regard to the Outpatient waiting lists, the HSE operates a portal for hospital consultants to be able to view and manage their lists. This information is not placed in the public domain. Publication of waiting lists by consultant raises potential patient confidentiality issues and is not in line with the aim of hospitals and Hospital Groups to move to maintaining single waiting lists for different procedures and in different specialties to improve scheduling and equity.