Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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1685. To ask the Minister for Health the breakdown of waiting times on surgery waiting lists in Ennis General Hospital, County Clare, for elective and non-elective surgeries; his plans to help reduce the waiting times; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15137/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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It is recognised that waiting times for scheduled appointments and procedures have been impacted in the last year as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The HSE is currently recommending that only critical time dependent elective procedures are undertaken at this time due to the on-going and significant increased demand for bed capacity related to Covid-19.

This decision was made arising from the rapid increase in Covid-19 admissions and to ensure patient safety and that all appropriate resources were made available for Covid-19 related activity and time-critical essential work.

Patient safety remains at the centre of all hospital activity and elective care scheduling. To ensure services are provided in a safe, clinically-aligned and prioritised way, hospitals are following HSE clinical guidelines and protocols.

The HSE continues to optimise productivity through alternative work practices such as the use of alternative settings including private hospitals, community facilities and alternative outpatient settings.

The work of the HSE to improve access to elective care and reduce waiting times for patients is supported by the National Treatment Purchase Fund. This included increased use of private hospitals, funding weekend and evening work in public hospitals, funding “see and treat” services where minor procedures are provided at the same time as outpatient consultations, funding hybrid services where public and private hospitals contribute to the treatment of patients, virtual clinics and clinical validation.

€240 million has been provided in Budget 2021 for an access to care fund, €210m of which has been allocated to the HSE and a further €30m to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF). This will be used to fund additional capacity to address the shortfall arising as a result of measures taken in the context of Covid-19, as well as to address waiting lists.

The National Waiting List Management Policy is a standardised approach used by the HSE to manage scheduled care treatment for in-patient, day case and planned procedures. It sets out the processes that hospitals are to implement to manage waiting lists and was developed in 2014 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.

In relation to the information requested by the Deputy, the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) advises that the published waiting list reports on Inpatient and Day Case Procedures (IPDC) relate to elective or scheduled surgery, and they do not hold waiting list data for non-elective or emergency surgery.

The IPDC waiting list at the end of February for Ennis General Hospital is outlined in the attached document. The National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) publishes the Inpatient and Day Case (IPDC) waiting list on the NTPF website monthly

IPDC Ennis