THE DEPARTMENT of Health’s special delivery unit has said it is confident that all patients placed on waiting lists for elective or non-urgent procedures by the start of the year in hospitals will receive treatment by Christmas.
Minister for Health James Reilly has pledged that there would never again be a situation where nearly 570 patients were on trolleys in hospital emergency departments awaiting admission.
Earlier this year, the Minister set up the special delivery unit with a brief to reduce waiting lists and tackle problems of lengthy waiting times in emergency departments.
Speaking following a briefing yesterday chief operations officer of the unit Tony O’Brien said that the Minister’s policy was very clear in that he wanted the special delivery unit and the health system “to do everything possible to ensure that that figure of 569 [patients on trolleys] is never again reached”.
Mr O’Brien said that the unit was aiming to transform the emergency department experience for patients over the next 12 months “by reducing it down to a situation where people do not wait more than nine hours and where the vast majority do not wait more than six hours”.
“That is what will be considered in the medium term our acceptable achievement.”
Mr O’Brien said that about 4,000 people who were placed on elective hospital inpatient waiting lists before the beginning of this year will have to be treated by Christmas if the Government’s target of having patients wait no longer than one year for such procedures is to be achieved.
He said he was confident that the objective would be met.
Separately yesterday, doctors called on the Government to ensure that everyone earning the national minimum wage is entitled to a medical card.
In its pre-budget submission the Irish Medical Organisation said that the Government “must guarantee that those who require GP care receive it”.
“The Irish Medical Organisation is calling on this Government to increase the income threshold for receipt of a medical card to the minimum wage to more accurately reflect levels of disposable income.”