Waiting lists: The National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) has accused some consultants of having a "vested interest" by not co-operating with it to help patients get off hospital waiting lists.
NTPF chief executive Pat O'Byrne yesterday cited Cork University Hospital, Sligo General Hospital and Beaumont Hospital in particular. He said these hospitals were not referring as many patients as they could to the fund for treatment. This led to patients "needlessly waiting" for surgical procedures, he said.
The NTPF was set up to reduce the length of time public patients are on hospital waiting lists by offering access to treatment.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) promised last night to enter into discussions with the hospitals concerned, while Minister for Health Mary Harney said patients had a right to treatment.
The assistant secretary general of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA), Donal Duffy, said 43,000 patients had been treated so far by the NTPF.
"Each of those has been treated by a consultant," he said. "I am disappointed that Pat O'Byrne made the comments he did and is not aware that in each of the hospitals he referred to, the hospital administrations have systems in place to refer patients on without the involvement of consultants. So, the allegations against the consultants don't stand up."
The Irish Medical Organisation also hit back last night, saying, "this seems to be another unsubstantiated allegation made about doctors about which we have no evidence". "The Irish Medical Organisation is not aware of any consultant refusing to co-operate with the National Treatment Purchase Fund," it said in a statement.
Mr O'Byrne said he had contacted Cork University Hospital, for example, and the reason given for lack of referrals was that the procedures were "very complicated". "I do not accept this argument," he said.
In a statement, the HSE said "the vast majority" of hospitals were co-operating fully. "They are actively making referrals and the process is working well in these instances," it said. "However, we are aware that this is not the case for a small number of hospitals. This places patients at a disadvantage and the HSE finds this unsatisfactory. On that basis we will be following up with the small number of hospitals and discussions will take place."
Ms Harney urged consultants to co-operate with the fund. She said it was a patient's entitlement to treatment and there was no necessity for further delays.
The NTPF released figures yesterday claiming that waiting times for the most common procedures had been reduced to two to five months on average. This compares with two to five years when the fund was established four years ago.
The figures also showed that the fund treated 18,197 patients last year, with a budget of €64 million. The number of cardiology cases treated almost doubled to 1,240 from 637 in 2004. There has also been a sharp rise in the number of orthopaedic cases, which increased from 686 in 2004 to 1,772 last year. Of these, almost 1,000 were hip replacements. Last year saw a rise of 60 per cent in the number of neurosurgical operations.
About 5 per cent of operations took place outside the State. A small number of these were paediatric operations conducted in the US.