Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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395. To ask the Minister for Health the reason persons that are waiting on surgery and are on a hospital waiting list are questioned after a period of time if they still need said surgery and are then removed from the waiting last if they do not reply within a period of time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40655/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Good practice around the management of hospital waiting lists recommends periodic validation processes and in this context, the NTPF National Inpatient/Daycase Planned Procedure Waiting List Management Protocolsets out the national protocols for the management of waiting lists including validation and clinical suspensions.

The purpose of Validation is to:

- Maintain hospital-patient communication during the patient’s waiting list journey;

- Update the patient record;

- Reduce the rate of patient non-attendance and/or patient cancellations; and

- Provide clean, accurate, up to date waiting list data which reflects the true demand for hospital services.

Administrative validation is the process whereby hospital administration contacts patients on inpatient and day case waiting lists at pre-planned intervals during the year to ensure that patients are ready, willing, suitable and available to attend a hospital appointment or wish to be removed. When a patient is removed from a waiting list due to non-response to a written validation cycle, notification must be sent to the referring clinician and the patient. A copy should also be placed in the patient’s Health Care Record (HCR). If requested by the GP/referring clinician, patients can be reinstated back to their original place on to the Waiting List.

In addition, clinical validation is the process whereby the Clinician or delegate clinical team member conducts a review of the patients healthcare records and/or medical notes for patients on inpatient, day case and planned procedure waiting lists in excess of six months. Where there is a requirement for clinical validation, patients are contacted by phone by the clinician or delegate as part of a virtual clinic. These reviews are carried out at pre-planned intervals during the year.