Harney fury at doctors’ criticism of waiting lists

TÁNAISTE and Health Minister Mary Harney rounded on consultants yesterday for attacking the Government’s performance in cutting hospital waiting lists.

Figures released yesterday show 4,944 people were awaiting surgery in six major Dublin hospitals and one Limerick hospital. Of those, 1,207 were waiting more than 12 months. Under the last waiting list system, the seven hospitals accounted for about 40% of the total number of patients waiting surgery nationally.

The last waiting list figures, published by the Department of Health in December 2003, showed 27,000 people waiting for treatment.

But consultants are insisting the new waiting list figures, published by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF), must be viewed in the context of promises made when the Health Strategy was announced in November 2001.

The Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association (IHCA) said former Health Minister Micheál Martin had stated that by the end of 2004 no patient would wait more than three months. That was clearly not the case now, they pointed out.

Ms Harney said the Patient Treatment Register (PTR), a new system operated by the NTPF, was “good news” as any patient now found to be on a waiting list for more than three months would be contacted by the NTPF and offered alternative treatment, probably in a private facility.

“If the list for people waiting over 12 months for treatment has reduced by 70%, that is good news. If the list for people waiting six to 12 months was halved, that is good news. If for 17 of the top 20 common procedures, the wait is two to four months, that is good news,” Ms Harney said.

The Patient Treatment Register (PTR), which provides patients and GPs with website access to live waiting list data, will be rolled out fully next year, giving a complete national picture of waiting times.

A waiting list report will also be published by the NTPF twice a year, but the IHCA believes such reports should be published at least every three months and differentiate between in-patients and day-case patients.

Six Dublin hospitals - the Mater, Tallaght, Beaumont, St James’s, St Vincent’s and Connolly and one Limerick hospital, St John’s, are on the register. Cork University Hospital and Tralee General Hospital will be added to the register soon, while data from other hospitals around the country would be added as soon as it becomes available.

NTPF chairperson Maureen Lynott said work on establishing the register began last January. The information would enable it to identify problems that resulted in patients waiting an extraordinarily long time for treatment. Fund chief executive Pat O’Byrne said they intended arranging treatment for more than 16,000 patients this year.

Irish Patients’ Association chairman Stephen McMahon welcomed the register but pointed out that patients could still contact the NTPF and arrange alternative treatment if they were waiting three months or more for surgery.