Patients waiting for endoscopies to be fast-tracked

About 3,000 people who are awaiting endoscopy procedures are to be fast-tracked through the health system following a €1 million investment in outsourcing tests.

The funding is being made available by the Department of Health to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) which aims to slash the duration of waiting times by the end of the year.

An endoscopy is an internal examination of the colon, bladder or stomach areas used to detect signs of conditions including cancer.

The financing will secure examinations for anyone waiting for a period of over 12 months or who would have been waiting 12 months by the end of this year.

The NTPF, an independent body, is charged with monitoring outpatient waiting lists and collating data on those awaiting treatments.

A continued investment of €50 million a year in reducing waiting lists generally is part of the programme for partnership government.

It will see about €15 million routed to the NTPF in 2017.

"The target for this initiative is that by the end of the year no patient will be waiting over 12 months for an endoscopy procedure," Minister for Health Simon Harris said yesterday.

Quality of life

He said he was determined to see “major improvements” for patients who should have “every opportunity” for a better quality of life.

“It is a priority for me and I intend using this era of reinvestment in health to help those in most need.”

The NTPF has recently been reinstated by Mr Harris who said it was a useful tool in tackling waiting times.

There were more than 420,000 people waiting for a hospital outpatient appointment at the end of June, an increase of about 5,000 over numbers for May.

At the end of last September, a dedicated endoscopy initiative commenced by the NTPF targeted patients waiting over 12 months for a routine procedure, offering an external appointment.

Of a target cohort of 2,652 patients potentially waiting over 12 months at the end of December 2015, 2,438 were treated, representing a 92 per cent success rate.

Progress monitoring

Mr Harris said his department would engage with both the NTPF and HSE to monitor the progress of this successor programme.

However, despite its role in funding such waiting list initiatives, Nursing Homes Ireland (NHI) has said legislation supporting the body needs to be reformed.

Oversight needed

Chief executive

Tadhg Daly

said there was a “weakness in the law” that allowed the NTPF to operate outside the oversight of an independent body.

“NTPF is the funder and commissioner of many healthcare services, including nursing homecare,” he said.

“Our sector has long had concerns with the NTPF and the level of non-accountability that is applied to a public body that is responsible for the commissioning of over a billion euro of health spend per annum.”