Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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99. To ask the Minister for Health if he expects the HSE to reach its target of over 130,000 net reduction in waiting lists per the 2022 waiting list action plan; the net reduction and addition in the year to date in 2022 ; the project outturn for the full year 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61301/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The 2022 Waiting List Action Plan (WLAP) launched in February is the first year of a multi-annual approach to reducing waiting lists and waiting times in line with strategic Sláintecare targets and reforms. The €350m funding allocated to the HSE and NTPF this year has been primarily focused on providing additional public and private activity to reduce waiting list backlogs that were exacerbated during the pandemic, but also to lay the foundations for important multi-annual reforms that will deliver sustained reductions in waiting lists.

However, as a result of significant challenges from continued COVID-19 surges, emergency department pressures and other operational factors, including hiring, the ambitious WLAP targets for significantly reducing hospital scheduled care waiting lists (by 18% to their lowest level in five years) as well as radically reducing waiting times (98% of all patients on active waiting lists to wait less than 18 months for their first outpatient appointment and less than 12 months for their procedure) will not be met this year.

Full reporting on the 2022 WLAP, including net reduction and addition figures, will be finalised before year-end.

Despite the challenges, our hospitals have delivered improvements which are making a real difference to patients. For example, overall waiting list numbers have reduced by approximately 2% in the year to date, and long waiters have reduced significantly in the year to date (figures as of 27 October):

- People waiting longer than 12 months for a GI Scope have reduced by 3.2k (78%)

- People waiting longer than 12 months for an inpatient / day case procedure have reduced by 2.6k (15%)

- People waiting longer than 18 months for an outpatient appointment have reduced by 38.7k (25%).

Additionally, patients waiting more than 6 months for 15 ‘high volume procedures’, including cataracts, hips and knees, who are clinically suitable, are on target to be authorised by the NTPF to be offered treatment in 2022; and over 57,000 additional diagnostics have been delivered (significantly exceeding original end-year target of 30,000). Over 5,600 people, the majority of whom are children, have been removed from community waiting lists across the areas of orthodontics, primary care child psychology, and counselling.

€123m funding has been allocated to the HSE in Budget 2023 that will be made available on a recurring basis to ensure these reforms deliver sustained reductions in waiting lists and ensure we achieve the strategic Sláintecare maximum wait time targets. An additional €240m once-off funding was also allocated in Budget 2023 for the NTPF and HSE to continue tackling waiting list backlogs. The 2023 Plan to utilise this funding is being developed and will continue to focus on building momentum and reducing waiting lists and times through our multi-annual approach.