Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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200. To ask the Minister for Health the number of persons on waiting lists for treatment at Naas General Hospital in each of the past five years; the number waiting for lengths greater than three and six months and one and two years, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49968/21]

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 nineteen months as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic and more recently as a result of the ransomware attack. While significant progress was made in reducing waiting times from June 2020 onwards, the surge in Covid-19 cases in the first quarter of 2021 and the associated curtailment of acute hospital services, coupled with the ransomware attack of May 2021, has impacted waiting times.

My Department, the HSE and the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) are focusing on improving access to elective care in order to reduce waiting times for patients. These plans include 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, providing virtual clinics and increasing capacity in the public hospital system.

An additional €240 million has been provided in Budget 2021 for an access to care fund, €210m of which was allocated to the HSE and a further €30m to the NTPF. This is being used to fund additional capacity to address the shortfall arising as a result of infection control measures taken in the context of COVID-19, as well as addressing backlogs in waiting lists.

This Government is committed to a co-ordinated programme of reform, with a two-pronged approach:

- a short-term waiting list action plan to address loss of activity, which I published last week;

- tackling longer term goals under the multi-annual waiting list plan which is currently being prepared by the Department of Health, the HSE and the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) with the objective of bringing waiting lists and waiting times in line with Sláintecare commitments (12 weeks IPDC/10 weeks OPD/10 days diagnostics).

The information requested by the Deputy regarding the number of persons on waiting lists for treatment at Naas General Hospital in each of the past five years; the number waiting for lengths greater than three and six months and one and two years is provided in the attached document.

Naas General Hospital, Outpatient EndOfYear waits from 2016 to August 2021

Naas General Hospital, In-Patient EndOfYear waits from 2016 to August 2021

*Due to the small volume of patients waiting in certain specialties, to preserve patient confidentiality, when the number of patients is <5, these have been included within broader timebands or aggregated into a 'Small Volume Specialties' cohort.