Some 1,302 patients from the Republic have been treated in Northern Ireland since 2002 under the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF), the body set up to reduce the time public patients wait for operations, often of a relatively minor nature.
One of the first patients who had treatment paid for by the NTPF had been on a waiting list for eight years.
The 1,302 patients treated in Northern Ireland since the establishment of the fund were treated at the North West Independent Hospital in Derry for procedures including vascular (vein) surgery.
At an estimated average cost of €3,085 per patient treated under the NTPF, the cost of treating those patients to date is just over €4 million. Last year, the body's total funding was €44 million, or 0.4 per cent of the total health spend. More than 94 per cent of the NTPF's budget was spent on patient care, with the balance covering administration and other costs.
Overall, the number treated in Northern Ireland to date is a small proportion (4 per cent) of the 31,493 patients treated to the end of June. However, the body is clearly keen to refer more patients outside the State, including to Northern Ireland.
In its annual report for 2004, the NTPF said referrals outside the State continued to be slow, but that this avenue was "worthy of pursuit" because the NTPF had secured additional capacity for treatment.
According to the body, the majority of hospitals (52 per cent) are now referring patients who have been waiting less than six months. Some 97 per cent of hospitals are referring patients who have been waiting less than 12 months.
In May 2004, responsibility for recording waiting list figures was handed over to the NTPF, which is currently compiling the new Patient Treatment Register. The register should bring an end to the inconsistent approach to records.
The NTPF found the old system was based on a collection of "statistics" by speciality and that patients' names and individual details were not held.
"As a result, the NTPF concluded that it could not readily identify or verify, from the information provided, patients actively waiting for treatment, patients temporarily not available for treatment and patients no longer needing treatment," according to the 2004 annual report.
The new register will, says the NTPF, contain "the name of every patient waiting for surgery, as well as their address, type of surgery needed and length of time they are waiting for treatment".
The first figures, with waiting lists for the main Dublin teaching hospitals and St John's Hospital, Limerick, should be available by the end of this month, with full roll-out of the register by 2006.
A spokeswoman for the NTPF said the main focus now was on the length of time people had been on waiting lists and not on the numbers waiting. "When it started out, people could have been waiting for up to eight years. It's about waiting times rather than numbers."
Elaine Edwards