David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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1414. To ask the Minister for Health the total number of patients over 75 years of age on a community or CHO waiting list, broken down by the length of time they are waiting, namely for zero to three months, three to six months, six months to one year, greater than one year and greater than two years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29058/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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1415. To ask the Minister for Health the total number of patients over 75 years of age on an acute hospital waiting list, broken down by the length of time they are waiting, namely for zero to three months, three to six months, six months to one year, greater than one year and greater than two years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29059/22]

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 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.

The 2022 Waiting List Action Plan, which was launched on the 25th of February, allocates €350 million to the HSE and NTPF to reduce waiting lists. Under this plan the Department, HSE, and NTPF will deliver urgent additional capacity for the treatment of patients, as well as investing in longer term reforms to bring sustained reductions in waiting lists.

The 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 NTPF and was driven and overseen by a senior governance group co-chaired by the Secretary General of the Department of Health 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 Lis Task Force. The Task Force will meet regularly to drive progress of the 2022 plan.

This is the first stage of an ambitious multi-annual waiting list programme, which is currently under development in the Department of Health. 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.

In relation to the particular query raised by the Deputy, the attached document, provided to my Department by the NTPF, outlines the number of patients over 75 years of age on IPDC & OPD hospital waiting lists by time-band and hospital.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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1416. To ask the Minister for Health the total number of patients over 75 years of age on a diagnostic waiting list, broken down by the length of time they are waiting, namely for zero to three months, three to six months, six months to one year, greater than one year and greater than two years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29060/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The HSE advises that a pilot project commenced in 2016 by the HSE Acute Hospitals Division to progress the collection of national radiology waiting list data. The project has been supported by the Radiology Clinical Care Programme and has involved key stakeholders across the system including the National Integrated Medical Imaging System (NIMIS) Team, Hospital Groups, and the support of the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) for data collection and data management expertise.

Under this pilot project, data for CT, MRI and Ultrasound are collated quarterly by the NTPF. The purpose of this aggregate data is to provide a National Level overview of the number of patients waiting for modalities of CT, MRI and Ultrasound.

The NTPF has advised that, as the collection of diagnostic waiting list data is still in pilot mode, it is not possible to provide the detail requested by the Deputy.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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1417. To ask the Minister for Health the total number of patients under 18 years of age on a community or CHO waiting list broken down by the length of time they are waiting, namely for zero to three months, three to six months, six months to one year, greater than one year and greater than two years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29061/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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1418. To ask the Minister for Health the total number of patients under 18 years of age on an acute hospital waiting list, broken down by the length of time they are waiting, namely for zero to three months, three to six months, six months to one year, greater than one year and greater than two years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29062/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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In relation to the particular query raised by the Deputy, the attached document, outlines the number of patients under 18 years of age on IPDC & OPD waiting lists by time-band and hospital.

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 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.

The 2022 Waiting List Action Plan, which was launched on the 25th of February, allocates €350 million to the HSE and NTPF to reduce waiting lists. Under this plan the Department, HSE, and NTPF will deliver urgent additional capacity for the treatment of patients, as well as investing in longer term reforms to bring sustained reductions in waiting lists.

The 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 NTPF and was driven and overseen by a senior governance group co-chaired by the Secretary General of the Department of Health 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 Lis Task Force. The Task Force will meet regularly to drive progress of the 2022 plan.

This is the first stage of an ambitious multi-annual waiting list programme, which is currently under development in the Department of Health. 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.

IP Table