Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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557. To ask the Minister for Health to provide a list of the number of people on waiting lists and a breakdown of the average waiting times they are experiencing in each outpatient department at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, in tabular form. [39190/24]

Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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558. To ask the Minister for Health to provide a list of the number of children awaiting outpatient appointments at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda, including a breakdown of the waiting times, in tabular form. [39191/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 557 and 558 together.

It is acknowledged that many patients are still waiting too long for hospital appointments and treatments. I am conscious of the burden this places on patients and their families.

As part of the multi-annual approach to reducing waiting lists, and just as importantly the length of time that patients are waiting, I published the 2024 Waiting List Action Plan on 27th March. Total funding of €360 million has been provided for the plan this year which sets out 19 Actions across three themes: Delivering Capacity, Reforming Scheduled Care and Enabling Scheduled Care Reform.

The Waiting List Action Plan multi-annual approach, initiated in 2021, encompasses a two-pronged approach of short-term actions to increase capacity and activity in the immediate term, and longer-term reform measures to sustainably reduce and reform hospital waiting lists and waiting times.

The 2024 Plan builds on the work of previous plans which have achieved significant progress in overall waiting list reduction and in addressing long waiting times, against a backdrop of significantly increased demand for scheduled care services. This year’s plan aims to achieve a reduction in the overall number of patients on waiting lists while three of the four overarching targets in the Plan are specifically focused on improving waiting times.

Adult and child waiting list information by hospital and specialty is published monthly by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) on its website: www.ntpf.ie/home/nwld.htm.

The information is now being made available through an interactive visual tool which provides users with a much-improved way of accessing and analysing waiting list information.

The NTPF has advised that the health system does not collect the data necessary to calculate true average wait times. In particular, the time to treatment of patients who have already received their care is not collected. The NTPF collects data on patients on the waiting list at a particular time, and the average time that these patients were waiting is provided here.

Average wait time for Outpatient specialties (OPD) at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda as of 29/08/2024

"The health system does not collect the data necessary to calculate average wait times. In particular, the time to treatment of patients who have already received their care is not collected. The NTPF collects data on patients currently on the waiting list and the average time that these patients have been waiting is provided here."