Written answers

Tuesday, 12 July 2022

Department of Health

Hospital Waiting Lists

Photo of David CullinaneDavid Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

180. To ask the Minister for Health when he will publish a multi-annual waiting list strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37357/22]

Photo of Stephen DonnellyStephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The 2022 Waiting List Action Plan was launched on 25 February this year following extensive engagement between my Department, the HSE and the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF).

The Action Plan contains 45 actions to reduce and reform waiting lists across four main areas of work: delivering capacity, reforming scheduled care, enabling scheduled care reform, and addressing community care access and waiting lists. One of these actions is to develop and agree a multi-annual waiting list reduction plan to support the achievement of the Government maximum wait time targets.

Our immediate priority under the Action Plan during the first half of 2022 has been to focus on identifying and funding additional activity to reduce the number of people waiting, with a particular focus on long waiters. The HSE and the NTPF are currently delivering this additional activity. Implementation of the Action Plan is being governed by a Waiting List Task Force, co-chaired by the Secretary General of my Department and the CEO of the HSE, who are meeting regularly.

The focus of the Task Force for the remainder of 2022, in addition to overseeing and driving additional activity, is now turning to delivery of a multi-annual waiting list reduction plan that will provide direction over the coming years to implement longer-term reform measures.

Such reform measures include modernising patient care pathways to bring care closer to the community and reduce the pressure on our hospitals, and greatly enhancing the availability and analysis of waiting list data and information. In this area, we have already seen the initial roll out to hospitals by the HSE of a health performance visualisation platform (HPVP) to introduce a new automated approach to acute hospitals information management that will produce timely, meaningful insights and reports.

The 2022 Waiting List Action Plan will both positively impact the numbers of people waiting in 2022, as well as bring about real and lasting change to our waiting lists in the future by being the first year of a comprehensive and strategic multi-annual waiting list reduction and reform programme, the plan for which will be published during Q4 of this year, as was previously specified in the Sláintecare Action Plan 2022 published by my Department on 8th June.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.