Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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81. To ask the Minister for Health the action he will take to address the long outpatient waiting times in the children’s hospital group in which 10,329 persons are waiting more than 18 months for an appointment. [43584/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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In Budget 2019 the Government has prioritised improving access and reducing waiting times for patients, with funding to the National Treatment Purchase fund (NTPF) increasing from €55 million in 2018 to €75 million in 2019, of which, €6 million will be committed to outpatient activity. In addition, specific investments to improve paediatric services have been made including the establishment of the Outpatient and Urgent Care Centre at Connolly Hospital in 2019 and the development of sustainable and safe paediatric orthopaedic service, including scoliosis, for children and young people

To date in 2018, the NTPF has approved almost 12,700 additional first-time outpatient appointments and this is projected to increase to 40,000 appointments next year. I recently met with the CEO’s of all hospital groups to discuss improving access for patients and requested that they work with the NTPF and HSE in 2019 develop innovative proposals to address the number of long waiters on outpatient lists in 2019.

This year, the NTPF has approved 504 Outpatient appointments for Temple Street as part of an initiative to support implementation of an extended working day in the hospital. The NTPF is also due to meet with the Children’s Hospital Group (CHG) this month to review proposals for additional insourcing and outsourcing initiatives in cardiology, ENT, and other specialties.

In addition, the CHG advises that it has implemented a number of new and innovative initiatives to improve access to outpatient appointments for patients across a range of specialties including cardiology, dermatology, and orthopaedics. This includes:

- additional clinics in ENT and dermatology;

- the appointment of additional staff in general paediatrics, ophthalmology and orthopaedics; and

- the use of virtual assessment clinics for rheumatology.

The Outpatient and Urgent Care Centre at Connolly Hospital in 2019 the will result in 6,350 outpatient appointments being issued for the new facility next year, with projected full year outpatient attendance of 15,240 in subsequent years.

The additional €9 million provided to the Children’s Hospital Group (CHG) in 2018, to support the development and implementation of a sustainable and safe paediatric orthopaedic service for children and young people, has also led to the improvement in waiting times for outpatient appointments for children.