Hospital Treatment should ‘not be delayed’

MICHEÁL MARTIN has promised money will be available to continue cutting hospital waiting lists next year despite recent budget cutbacks.

The Health Minister was speaking as the first patients to be treated abroad under a waiting list initiative prepare to travel to Britain for treatment.

Mr Martin said the Government would push ahead next year with the planned expansion of the Treatment Purchase Fund, which buys private treatment for public patients.

He said no patient would have to wait more than three months for treatment by the end of 2004.

Mr Martin said he was guaranteed there would be 30m in Government coffers to expand the scheme and would be pushing for more funds talks as talks over the Budget get underway.

This is despite a controversial budget "readjustment" last month when funds for the treatment programme were substantially cut.

"The treatment fund has the funding, the commitment and the beds available to treat up to 2,000 patients this year and we expect to treat at least 1,900 people," Mr Martin said.

But he conceded that pressures on the health service such as the flu virus and winter-vomiting bug had the potential to derail plans to dramatically cut waiting lists.

National Treatment Purchase Fund director Maureen Lynott encouraged patients to contact their GP to ensure they could avail of the scheme.

"Patients should be aware that the process is easy, confidential and that they will receive the best of care," she said.

"Patients have waited long enough as a general principle there is no reason for any further delay in referral or treatment."

Already around 700 people who have been on waiting lists for procedures such as hernia, cataracts, tonsils and hips have had treatment under the initiative.

Under the scheme patients will be treated in private hospitals at home or in Britain.

The participating hospitals include those in Liverpool, Manchester and Basingstoke, near Heathrow airport.

Mr Martin said that while 600 public patients will be treated a month under the scheme next year, he hoped that as many as 800 could be treated if the Department of Health secured enough funding.

This means that between 8,000 and 9,500 public patients could be treated privately next year.

The Irish Patients' Association yesterday welcomed Mr Martin's announcement and said the invitation to apply for treatment was a positive step.

"We take this instruction as meaning that the system has the financial resources to meet the expected demand," IPA chief Stephen McMahon said.