Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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58. To ask the Minister for Health the detail of the ongoing wait list validation process which is being undertaken in the Children's Hospital Group; the steps that occur; the way in which a decision is made that a child should be removed from the outpatient waiting list; if it is a clinical or administrative decision; the way in which children are safeguarded during this process; if the child’s consultants are involved in the decision making process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27853/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Improving waiting times for hospital procedures and outpatient appointments is a key commitment in the Programme for Government. In order to address the issue of growing outpatient waiting list numbers, my Department, the HSE and the NTPF are in the process of finalising an Outpatient Action Plan for 2018. This plan will support the HSE’s compliance with its National Service Plan targets, reduce the growth in the number of patients waiting for outpatient services, improve the accuracy of the waiting list, and trial a number of NTPF funded interventions, including weekend and out of hours clinics.

Since the end of 2017, the HSE and individual hospitals have undertaken validation of waiting lists. The validation of waiting lists is an important part of the Outpatient Action Plan and of the successful management of waiting lists and clinics. This month I approved the establishment of a Central Validation Office in the National Treatment Purchase Fund in order to centralise the validation of all waiting lists across the HSE. The NTPF envisages being in a position to commence validation of patient files from September of this year.

In terms of the procedures that are in place within the Children's Hospital Group for the validation of waiting lists, I have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly.