SURGICAL WAITING lists continue to grow although there has been a sharp fall in the number of patients waiting for more than 12 months, according to the annual report of the National Treatment Purchase Fund.
Almost 14,500 patients were waiting for surgery for at least three months at the end of last year, up from 13,900 the year before, the report shows. However, the numbers waiting for more than 12 months fell from 1,576 to 719.
As of this month, the number of patients waiting for more than 12 months has fallen further to 611, compared to more than 4,000 two years ago.
Two-thirds of these longest-waiting patients are in five hospitals – Tallaght, Temple Street children’s and Crumlin children’s hospitals in Dublin, Tullamore and the Mid-West Regional Hospital in Dooradoyle, Limerick.
The average waiting time for the fund, which was set up to buy surgical care for public patients waiting more than three months, is at an historic low of 2½ months, it says.
Last year the fund treated almost 29,000 patients, according to the report; however, this figure includes more than 6,000 outpatient appointments and 2,500 MRI consultations.
Minister for Health Mary Harney welcomed the fall in longer waiting times as a “good news story” and said the fund had been highly successful.
“Very frequently, what passes for health debate in Ireland refers to chaos and the Third World and things getting worse.
“If you were to believe all that you wouldn’t get up in the morning,” Ms Harney added. “The reality is that the services we are providing are better than ever before.”
The fund’s chief executive Pat O’Byrne said it was unacceptable that while long waiting times were down in most public hospitals, a solution to the problem had not been found in the five hospitals recording the longest waiting periods.
Mr O’Byrne pointed out that some hospitals which previously had problems with long waiting times, such as Letterkenny and Sligo, had succeeded in making inroads into the problem.
University Hospital Galway had the longest surgical waiting list at the end of 2009, with almost 2,300 people waiting more than three months for treatment; however, only nine of these were waiting more than 12 months.
The Mater hospital in Dublin had almost 1,700 people waiting over three months, but only nine waiting more than 12 months.
Virtually all the treatment paid for by the fund was in private hospitals; last year no patient was sent abroad for treatment because capacity was available in Irish hospitals.
Since it was set up in 2002, more than 170,000 people have received treatment paid for out of the fund. More than 17,000 people have had cataract operations, 5,500 have had joint replacements and 8,000 have had their tonsils removed.
The average cost of a procedure is €3,720, down from €4,350 in 2006. Last year, the budget of the fund was just over €90 million, or 0.5 per cent of the State’s overall health budget.
The fund says it plans to focus its work this year on patients who have been waiting more than nine months for treatment.