Written answers

Thursday, 13 December 2018

Department of Health

Hospital Waiting Lists Data

Photo of Michael Healy-RaeMichael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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116. To ask the Minister for Health the number of persons as of 1 December 2018 waiting for orthopaedic surgeries in UHK; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52521/18]

Photo of Simon HarrisSimon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Improving access to hospital treatment is a key priority for government. This year €55 million was allocated to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) to provide treatment for patients. This has been increased to a total of €75 million for 2019 and as a result of this additional funding, my Department is working closely with the NTPF and the HSE to finalise a Scheduled Care Access Plan for inpatients/day case and outpatients for 2019.

Waiting list figures are published by the NTPF on their website www.ntpf.ie. Figures for October 2018 show that the number of patients waiting for an Inpatient or Daycase procedures has fallen to 72,000 from the peak of 86,100 in July 2017. This represents a 16% reduction in the overall number of patients waiting for an inpatient or day case procedure.

In 2019, the NTPF and the HSE will continue to work closely with Hospital Groups, inviting proposals to improve access for patients waiting for either Inpatient/Daycase or Outpatient procedures.

According to the latest NTPF figures, there 177 patients on the Orthopaedic waiting list in UHK, and of these 76% (134) are waiting 6 months or less, 98.8% are waiting 9 months or less and 2 patients are waiting longer than 12 months.

The information requested by the Deputy is set out in the following table.

IPDC Orthopaedic Waiting List – University Hospital Kerry

0-3 Months3-6 Months6-9 Months9-12 Months12-15 MonthsTotal
67 67 41 0 2 177

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