John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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757. To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the four-year waiting list for ear, nose and throat, ENT, services at University Hospital Waterford; the number of persons on the waiting list; the action being taken to reduce the waiting time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18947/19]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I am conscious that waiting times are often unacceptably long and of the burden that this places on patients and their families. In this regard, I committed to improving waiting times for hospital appointments and procedures.

Budget 2019 announced that the Government has further increased investment in tackling waiting lists, with funding to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) increasing from €55 million in 2018 to €75 million in 2019.

The joint Department of Health/HSE/NTPF Scheduled Care Access Plan 2019 was published recently and sets out measures to improve care for patients waiting for scheduled care in 2019 by reducing wait times for inpatient/day case treatment and outpatient appointments. The plan will place a strong focus on a number of high-volume procedures, including tonsillectomies and septoplasties. When combined with HSE activity, it is projected that the NTPF will be in a position to offer treatment to all clinically suitable patients waiting more than 6 months for one of these procedures.

While the meeting of short-term targets is always welcome, more can be achieved and in this regard the HSE, Department of Health and NTPF, under the Access Plan, will work together with the objective of developing medium-long term improvement initiatives for patient access to hospital procedures. This will include moving care to more appropriate settings and providing care at the lowest level of complexity such as providing ophthalmology in the community; maximising the use of Advanced Nurse Practitioner led clinics. Issues relating to gynaecology waiting lists will be examined as part of this process.

In relation to the specific query raised by the Deputy, the IPDC and OPD waiting lists for ENT at University Hospital Waterford (UHW) are set out in the attached document. As of the end of March 2019 there were 407 patients waiting for an IPDC ENT procedure. This represents a decrease of 33% on the same period last year when there were 605 patients waiting. In terms of outpatients, as of the end of March there were 9,021 patients waiting for an appointment.

UHW have been working with the NTPF to arrange treatment and appointments for long-waiting patients as part of the Scheduled Care Access Plan 2019. In particular, the NTPF advise that 75 tonsils procedures and 800 Outpatient appointments have been approved for UHW. Of which, to date, 352 outpatient appointments have been arranged, of which 304 patients seen for ENT. The NTPF have also worked with UHW to offer outsourced treatment to 29 ENT patients, while 220 tonsil procedures have been in-sourced (91 child tonsils; 129 adult tonsils).

In relation to further actions being taken to reduce the waiting time for ENT patients at UHW, as this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly.

Table contd.

Table contd.