Scheduled Care Access Plan Aims To Reduce Hospital Waiting Times

The Minister for Health Simon Harris TD published the Scheduled Care Access Plan today, 11 March, aimed at reducing waiting times for hospital appointments and procedures.

The joint Department of Health, Health Service Executive (HSE) and National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) strategy sets out a number of commitments aimed at improving access for patients waiting for hospital operations or procedures as well as patients waiting for their first Outpatient appointment.

All clinically suitable patients waiting over six months for high volume procedures, including cataracts, joint replacements, tonsils and angiograms are to be seen.

Welcoming the plan's publication, Minister Harris said: "Significant progress was made last year in improving access for patients for hospital operations and procedures. In 2018, through the work of the NTPF and the HSE, the number of people waiting for a hospital procedure was reduced to 70,200 by the end of the year-from a peak of 86,100 in July 2017.

"Last year's performance also brought significant progress in meeting the Sláintecare recommendation that patients should wait no longer than 12 weeks for an inpatient procedure. At the end of December 2018 the number of patients waiting longer than 3 months had dropped to 40,200 from just under 58,000 in July 2017, a decrease of 31%.

"However, it must be acknowledged that due to a number of factors, planned activity for January and February this year is behind target and waiting lists are higher than projected in the plan.

"The challenge now will be to catch up on lost activity and meet the targets set out in the plan. The HSE and the NTPF are fully committed to meeting these targets and I look forward to progress in this regard. Irish patients want and deserve timely access to hospital procedures and appointments."

In 2019 the HSE will deliver 1.155 million elective hospital procedures and over one million new outpatient appointments, while the NTPF will deliver 25,000 Inpatient Day Case treatments, 5,000 Gastro Intestinal Scopes and 40,000 first Outpatient appointments.

The improved plan for 2019 will place a particular focus on ten high volume areas. Through the combined activity of the HSE and the NTPF, projections are that for these procedures, all clinically suitable patients waiting more than six months will be offered treatment in 2019.

Speaking as the plan was published, NTPF CEO Liam Sloyan said: "Working together the NPTF, HSE and the Department of Health achieved significant reductions in wait times for surgery in 2018. With increased funding in 2019, the NTPF is looking forward to building on this progress while also increasing its focus on patients waiting for outpatient consultations."

The National Director of Acute Operations at HSE, Ms. Angela Fitzgerald also welcomed the publication of the Scheduled Care Access Plan.

"The HSE welcomes the additional funding made available to the NTPF by Government in 2019 to support improved access to treatment for patients on waiting lists.

"This presents a significant opportunity to build on the progress already made in 2018. The HSE will continue to work in close collaboration with the NTPF and the Department of Health in 2019 to deliver on the Scheduled Care Access Plan and deliver initiatives that will support recovery from reduced activity in the early part of 2019."