Press release
Minister for Health welcomes the publication of the Acute Waiting list Action Plan (September to December 2021)
From Department of Health
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Health
Published on
Last updated on
Following the cabinet meeting this afternoon, Minister for Health Mr Stephen Donnelly, today (Thursday) welcomed the publication of the Waiting List Action Plan, a plan aimed at mitigating the impact of the pandemic and the cyber-attack on scheduled care activity this year.
Minister Donnelly said:
“As the threat from COVID-19 continues to recede, one of my highest priorities is tackling waiting lists. Waiting lists were bad before the pandemic, they are worse now, and we must take remedial action to ensure they don’t get any worse.
"In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the cyber-attack in May of this year, most routine scheduled care had to be deferred at various stages over the past 18 months, in order to prioritise COVID-19 and urgent time-critical care. This has had an unavoidable adverse impact on waiting lists."
Minister Donnelly added:
"This immediate-short term plan is a joint approach by the HSE, the NTPF and my department to tackle backlogs and to stem any further growth in waiting lists by the end of this year. The plan has targets in areas of waiting list management, immediate capacity, improved pathways of care and improved data collection and information."
The Minister emphasised that this is one component in overall plans for tackling waiting lists.
A second and more significant component is the development of a longer term Multi Annual Waiting List Plan, which will be overseen by a Ministerial taskforce and led by his Secretary General, Mr Robert Watt.
Targets and detailed hospital-by-hospital plans are being developed, with the intention of bringing waiting lists in line with Sláintecare maximum waiting times of 10 weeks for outpatients, 12 weeks of inpatient day case and 10 days for diagnostics, over the coming years.
The Minister underlined it would take time and determination to achieve these targets, but he promised that this would receive the same intense focus that he, his officials and the HSE had given to COVID-19 and the vaccine rollout. He committed to working collaboratively with all sections of the health service to develop and implement solutions to waiting lists in order to make the transformational changes needed in the health sector.
The Waiting List Action Plan for the remainder of the year has been developed in consultation between the Department of Health, the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF). It has deliverables across five areas with specific action within each area.
Waiting lists for each hospital will be assessed by Hospital Groups and speciality to allow for the development of specific plans to reduce the list by the year end.
Governance arrangements and supports will be in place to ensure a focus on local waiting list reduction.
The National Treatment Purchase Fund and HSE will undertake an exercise to remove duplications, ensure more effective use of resources through reductions in missed appointments, and a process of clinical validation by consultants to ensure appropriate scheduling of patients.
The plan includes actions to increase activity by increased use of public resources, and the use by the HSE and NTPF of private facilities.
New pathways to fast-tracking the route that patients follow to access care and ensuring those patients receive the right care first time are an essential part of the Sláintecare strategy. There are several pilot projects on-going in the system and examples of good practice that have similar potential to deliver efficiencies are to be expedited.
A phased approach will be required for the ambitious Sláintecare waiting time targets to be achieved. Part of this work will be the agreement of multi annual waiting time targets. This will form part of the annual Sláintecare Improvement Plans that individual hospitals and hospital groups will be required to develop. This work has already commenced with a number of targets to be set by the end of the year in order to achieve the longer-term goals.
A lack of timely accurate and comprehensive data is a major weakness in our health system. To address these deficits, the HSE will implement a Health Performance Visualisation Platform which will provide real-time health data and trends across emergency departments, outpatient services, theatres, diagnostic services and bed management. This will allow managers and clinicians to have visibility of activity across the system and make urgent interventions where necessary.
The Plan contains 20 specific actions under these headings to enable its objectives to be achieved.