Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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468. To ask the Minister for Health the number of persons on the outpatient waiting list for gastroenterology in Tallaght University Hospital; the number who have appointments; the longest outpatient waiting time; and the measures that have been taken to address access issues, improve patient services and reduce the length of time and waiting lists since 2017. [37340/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Waiting list figures for the end of August 2018, published last week by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) show there are 1,032 waiters on the Gastroenterology outpatient waiting list in Tallaght University Hospital, of which 282 have appointments.

Almost 66% of patients are waiting 6 months or less, while there are 46 waiting 12-15 months.

Nationally, the Outpatient Waiting List remains a significant challenge to be addressed in 2018. Waiting list figures for August 2018 show there are over 514,500 patients on the outpatient waiting list. Each year, 3.3 million patients attend hospital outpatient clinics for appointments. It is worth noting that last year almost half a million (477,000) outpatients did not attend their appointment.

My Department, in consultation with the HSE and the NTPF, is in the process of finalising an Outpatient Action Plan for the remainder of 2018 which I hope to publish soon.

The Plan will support the HSE’s compliance with their 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.