Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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766. To ask the Minister for Health the number of people on the waiting list to access a first appointment with gynaecology services in Tallaght University Hospital; the number waiting over one year for a first appointment; and the number waiting over five years for a first appointment. [26211/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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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. 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. On the 7th of March, I published the 2023 Waiting List Action Plan, which is the next stage of a new multi-annual approach to sustainably reduce and reform hospital waiting lists, and builds on the foundational work done through the short-term Waiting List Action Plan between September and December 2021, which was followed by the first full year Waiting List Action Plan for 2022, both having reversed the annual trend of rising waiting lists.

The 2023 Plan sets out the priorities to continue to address waiting lists this year. The 30 actions in the Plan, which are governed by the Waiting List Task Force, focus on delivering capacity, reforming scheduled care and enabling scheduled care reform.

For 2023, funding totalling €443 million is being allocated to tackle Waiting Lists with €363 million of this being allocated to the 2023 Waiting List Action Plan, to implement longer term reforms and provide additional public and private activity to clear backlogs exacerbated during the pandemic. This will reduce hospital waiting lists by 10% in 2023 as well as continuing to significantly reduce waiting times in line with Sláintecare recommendations. The remaining €80 million of the €443 million is being targeted at various measures to alleviate community/primary care waiting lists.

With this ambitious 2023 Waiting List Action Plan, my Department, the HSE and the NTPF are taking the next steps in the multi-annual approach towards achieving our vision of a world-class public healthcare system in which everyone has timely and transparent access to high-quality scheduled care, where and when they need it, in line with Sláintecare reforms.

In regard to the information requested by the Deputy, the total number of patients waiting for an outpatient gynaecology appointment in Tallaght University Hospital as at the end of April 2023 was 2,504. The NTPF has provided the attached document, which outlines the OPD gynaecology waiting list for Tallaght University Hospital in the requested timebands.

Outpatient Gynaecology waiters at Tallaght University Hospital by time band 27/04/2023