Written answers
Wednesday, 21 April 2021
Department of Health
Hospital Data
John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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2337. To ask the Minister for Health the number of public patients that have been removed from outpatient lists in 2021 as a result of a validation exercise and not as a result of having an appointment with a consultant for each public and voluntary hospital in tabular form. [20602/21]
Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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In order to ensure the accuracy of waiting lists, good practice around the management of hospital waiting lists recommends periodic validation of waiting lists. Validation is the process whereby hospital administration contacts patients on waiting lists at pre-planned intervals during the year to ensure that patients are ready, willing, suitable and available to attend a hospital appointment or wish to be removed.
For a number of years validation was conducted at individual hospital level in Ireland but in 2018, the Minister for Health approved the establishment of the National Centralised Validation Unit (NCVU) within the National Treatment Purchase Fund. The establishment of a centralised function has facilitated the introduction of a standardised approach to validation of waiting lists across hospitals and across IPDC and OPD waiting lists.
In relation to the data requested by the Deputy, the NCVU provided the attached document which outlines outpatient validation figures by hospital from 1st January to end March 2021.
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