State considers extending NTPF

THE Government is considering extending the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) to cover patients who are still waiting to get an appointment with a consultant.

NTPF chief executive Patrick O'Byrne said the South Infirmary in Cork was likely to be one of 10 pilot sites to be located across the country. He said negotiations were underway in relation to the remaining sites.

Speaking after the NTPF's first board meeting in Cork yesterday, Mr O'Byrne said the pilot sites would be used to assess the experience of outpatients with a view to providing a better service.

"We've been asked by the Tánaiste Mary Harney to look at outpatient waiting times, for example, in Cork. My understanding is that people can be waiting two to three years to see an

orthodontist at outpatient level and the same applies in the case of plastic surgery and ophthalmology." He said the hospitals would supply the information needed to assess services.

Five Dublin hospitals the Mater, Beaumont, St James, Tallaght and St Vincent's as well as St John's in Limerick are already supplying the NTPF with information to kick start the new Patient Treatment Register, an alternative to hospital waiting lists which will no longer be published.

Yesterday, Mr O'Byrne confirmed it would be 2006 before anything resembling a national in-patient waiting list was available.

Patient waiting times in relation to the five Dublin hospitals and St John's should be available by mid-2005. Mr O'Byrne said the new register would not rely on hospital guesstimates, that it would include specifics such as names and addresses of patients, procedures

required and treatment waiting times. Mr O'Byrne said this will allow doctors to pinpoint where patients can be treated quickly.