THE NATIONAL Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) has repeated that Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Crumlin, Dublin, has not dealt with those longest on its waiting list to the greatest extent possible.
The renewed criticism of the largest children's hospital in the State came a day after the fund's chief executive Pat O'Byrne told the Dáil Public Accounts Committee he was not happy with the level of engagement the hospital has had with the fund, which can arrange private treatment for patients waiting long periods for surgery on public hospital waiting lists.
The hospital immediately rejected this, saying it had only been offered 450 treatment slots by the National Treatment Purchase Fund for children on its waiting lists in 2009 and it used them all up.
Dr Michael McDermott, secretary of the hospital's medical board, also expressed surprise and disappointment at Mr O'Byrne's comments yesterday. He said he shared Mr O'Byrne's frustration that any child would have to wait for surgery, but the hospital, he insisted, was engaging fully with the fund.
It still has 71 children waiting more than a year for surgery on its books, but Dr McDermott told RTÉ's Morning Ireland this was small given that Crumlin undertook 14,000 procedures a year.
Furthermore, he stressed, some children who were waiting long periods for procedures such as cardiac surgery could not be referred to a private hospital as the facilities to treat children needing heart operations were only at Crumlin.
In a statement yesterday, however, the fund repeated its criticism of the hospital.
"It is correct that 450 patients were agreed for treatment last year with Crumlin hospital . . . It is also correct that some treatments for children, such as cardiac surgery, are exceptional and need to be delivered at Crumlin. However, the hospital has not dealt with the longest waiters to the extent possible," it said.
"We will now move to work directly with Crumlin to get children waiting the longest for operations treated quickly. We will also work with the hospital to put in place an improved waiting list management system that complies with agreed national waiting list policy," it added.
The National Treatment Purchase Fund had also cited three other hospitals for not engaging sufficiently with it to reduce waiting times for patients. These were Temple Street, Tallaght and to a lesser extent Tullamore Hospital. They, along with Crumlin, accounted for more than half the number of patients waiting more than 12 months to be seen, Mr O'Byrne said.
Temple Street and Tallaght hospitals rejected this criticism too, saying the numbers of patients they were allowed to refer to the fund were limited by the fund itself.
Temple Street said while its waiting times were lengthy in certain specialities, it fully co-operated with the fund "within the limits set by the NTPF". It said the fund limited it to 200 patient referrals last year and all these were used.
It would welcome an increase in its referral quota in 2010 as part of its overall plan to reduce current waiting times for surgery.
Tallaght Hospital said it too was stopped referring more than "its quota" to the treatment fund last year.