Written answers

Wednesday, 1 February 2023

Photo of John LahartJohn Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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293. To ask the Minister for Health the total number of Irish patients suffering from sleep apnoea in the State, by HSE CHO area, in tabular form. [5107/23]

Photo of Stephen DonnellyStephen 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.

Photo of John LahartJohn Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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294. To ask the Minister for Health the number of Irish patients who are waiting for a sleep disorder screening appointment, by HSE CHO area, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5108/23]

Photo of John LahartJohn Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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295. To ask the Minister for Health the total number of persons who are waiting for sleep disorder care (details supplied); and the average waiting time for such services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5109/23]

Photo of Stephen DonnellyStephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 294 and 295 together.

It is recognised that waiting times for many scheduled appointments and procedures were too long before and have been made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic. While significant work continues to positively impact on waiting times and improve pathways to elective care, acute hospitals are still impacted by operational challenges arising from the pandemic and the current pressures on Emergency Departments.

The Health Service Executive (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 set targets to reduce both the number of people waiting for care and the length of time they are waiting. Positive progress was made in 2022 in relation to both targets, despite negative impacts throughout the year on scheduled care from continued COVID-19 surges, emergency department pressures and other operational factors, including staff hiring. In 2022, there were c.1.56m patients removed from the Waiting list and c.1.53m patients added to the waiting list – a net reduction of c.30k (4%). Long waiters were significantly reduced in 2022: the number of patients exceeding the 18-month maximum wait time target for new outpatient (OPD) appointments target decreased by c.59.0k (38.5%) and the number of patients exceeding the 12-month maximum wait time target for in-patient day case (IPDC) procedures and GI Scopes has decreased by c3.8k (22.6%) and c.3.5k (86.5%) respectively.

Through the 2022 Plan, €350m funding was allocated to the HSE and the NTPF to provide additional public and private activity to reduce the waiting list backlogs that were exacerbated during the Pandemic, but also as the first stage of an ambitious multi annual approach, to lay the foundations for important reforms that will deliver sustained reductions in waiting lists.

For 2023, funding of €443 million is being allocated to tackle Waiting Lists, some €360m of which is targeted at acute hospital waiting lists. The plan to utilise this part of the funding is being developed by the Department of Health in conjunction with the HSE and NTPF. This will include details of new capacity planned for 2023 as well as important reforms that will improve capacity in the public hospital system.

In relation to the particular query raised by the Deputy, the attached document, provided to my Department by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF), outlines the number of patients waiting for an Inpatient/Day Case appointment for sleep disorder testing at the end of December 2022. The data shows the number of patients waiting by acute hospital group and by time-band. The data is further broken down by active, pre-admit and suspended categories

The NTPF has advised my Department that outpatient data only provides the number of patients waiting by specialty and does not provide a breakdown of the number of patients awaiting a consultation relating to a sleep disorder.

The NTPF only collects data on patients currently on the waiting list. The time to treatment of patients who have already received their care is not collected. As a result, the health system does not have the data necessary to calculate true average wait times.

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