Waiting lists and treatment access
Deputy O’Reilly challenged rising waiting lists and asked about a single integrated national management system. The Minister for Health disputed that lists were increasing, arguing the figures had fallen for three months and that different categories of patients were being misrepresented.
Section 5 of A Programme for a Partnership Government reads: "Resources will be set aside each year to reduce waiting lists with the funding targeted, in particular, at those most urgent cases and those whose who have been waiting longest." The latest National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, figures show that overall national waiting list numbers are increasing. Some doctors predict that the figure could exceed 100,000 by the end of the year. Will the Government implement a single integrated waiting list management system nationally? The Minister, Deputy Harris, will be aware that this has been done in the RCSI hospital group on a pilot basis and has worked fairly well. Hospitals in the group have started sharing resources and lists.
Sinn Féin has a plan for a single integrated waiting list management system called "Comhliosta". I have offered the Minister the name. In any event, will consideration be given to replicating nationally what has been shown to work locally?
Comment on this
Waiting lists are not increasing nationally; they have fallen for the third month in a row. Of course, patients on a pre-planned list, which is where a doctor wants to see the patient in another six months and the date for that appointment is set, are not counted as waiting. When the patient visits the doctor, is told that he or she is clinically not well enough for a procedure and is sent home, the patient is on the suspended list and is not waiting. Let us compare apples and apples and not confuse people on purpose. Waiting list numbers have reduced for three months in a row, but we have much more to do.
I agree with the Deputy on the issue of an integrated system. I have outlined to her how we have asked Trinity College Dublin to undertake a body of work, which will conclude in the first quarter of 2018, examining how other countries manage waiting lists. No other country counts them as we do. We are also asking eHealth Ireland to consider the Deputy's suggestion, which has merit. We might even call it "Comhliosta".