David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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376. To ask the Minister for Health the number of patients over 75 years of age who are on an outpatient or inpatient health waiting list, by wait times (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10678/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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It is recognised that waiting times for scheduled appointments and procedures have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. While significant work continues to positively impact on waiting times and improve pathways to elective care, acute hospitals have been impacted by operational challenges arising from surges in cases related to the Delta and Omicron variants.

The HSE has confirmed to the Department that 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 Department of Health continues to work with the HSE and the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) to identify ways to improve access to care, including through increased use of private hospitals, funding weekend and evening work in public hospitals, funding “see and treat” services, providing virtual clinics, and increasing capacity in the public hospital system.

€350m is being allocated in 2022 to the HSE and the NTPF to primarily provide additional public and private activity to further stabilise and reduce scheduled care waiting lists and waiting times in tandem with bringing forward much needed longer-term reforms. This will supplement the core activity of the HSE as detailed in the HSE National Service Plan (NSP) 2022.

The 2022 waiting list action plan, builds on the successes of the short-term 2021 plan that ran from September to December last year. The 2021 plan was developed by the Department of Health, the HSE and the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) and was driven and overseen by a senior governance group co-chaired by the Secretary General of the Department and the CEO of the HSE and met fortnightly. This rigorous level of governance and scrutiny of waiting lists has continued into this year with the oversight group evolving into the Waiting List Task Force. It has produced a comprehensive 2022 waiting list action plan which will set out high-level targets for waiting list improvement including dedicated funding for service reform, patient pathway improvement, and important significant additionality to substantially reduce the backlog of patients waiting. The taskforce will meet regularly to drive progress of the 2022 plan.

This is the first stage of an ambitious Multi-Annual Waiting List Plan, which is currently under development in my Department. Between them, these plans will work to support short, medium, and long term initiatives to reduce waiting times and provide the activity needed in years to come.

The data requested by the Deputy regarding the number of patients over 75 years of age that are on an outpatient or inpatient waiting list is outlined in the attached document which provides the waiting lists by time band on 27 January 2022.

Patients Aged 75 Years or Older by Waiting List by Wait Time Band as at 27/01/2022