Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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1129. To ask the Minister for Health the status of an appointment for a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15291/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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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 response to the Covid-19 pandemic the HSE had to take measures to defer most elective scheduled care activity in line with the advice of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET). This was to ensure patient safety and that all appropriate resources were made available for Covid-19 related activity and time-critical essential work.

The decision to delay appointments and admissions is not undertaken lightly and when such a decision is made, it is based on the safe delivery of care to all patients. The trajectory of the disease means there is now an opportunity for increasing the provision of non-covid care including more routine care. In this context Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) is now re-establishing services on an incremental basis.

Under the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive (HSE) is required to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services. Section 6 of the HSE Governance Act 2013 bars the Minister for Health from directing the HSE to provide a treatment or a personal service to any individual or to confer eligibility on any individual.

The National Waiting List Management Policy, a standardised approach to managing scheduled care treatment for in-patient, day case and planned procedures, since January 2014, was developed to ensure that all administrative, managerial and clinical staff follow an agreed national minimum standard for the management and administration of waiting lists for scheduled care. This policy, which has been adopted by the HSE, sets out the processes that hospitals are to implement to manage waiting lists.

In relation to the particular query raised, as this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly.