Fund helps 32,000 waiting list patients

AROUND €88 million was spent treating more than 32,000 public patients in private hospitals under the National Treatment Purchase Fund last year.

The fund arranged 22,000 operations and for more than 10,500 people to see a hospital consultant for the first time at an out-patient clinic.

And it managed to stay within its 2007 budget of €88m, which included a relatively small provision for administrative costs.

This year it aims to provide 23,500 operations and arrange out-patient clinics for 13,500 people.

Patients qualify to be treated under the NTPF if they have been on a public waiting list for more than three months.

The operations performed cover a wide range of procedures including cataract treatment, knee and hip replacements, heart surgery, removing tonsils, spinal operations and hernia repair.

Last year, 24 hospitals participated in the NTPF’s treatment programme, referring patients to 23 different hospitals.

18 hospitals participated in the fund’s out-patient pilot programme which was launched three years ago.

Some patients had been waiting up to five years on waiting lists to see their consultant for the first time.

A total of 20,630 patients were contacted last year and offered an out-patient appointment under the fund.

This resulted in 5,331 persons being removed from the waiting lists because the appointment was not required, a further 2,018 declined the offer and chose to continue to wait while 2,712 did not respond.

Of the 10,500 patients who accepted the offer, 38% required surgery that was facilitated by the treatment purchase fund, 37% were seen by a consultant but did not require surgery, 18% required further investigation or review while 7% did not attend their scheduled appointment on two occasions and were removed from the lists.

The fund said the initiative has significantly reduced waiting times for a number of specialities in hospitals around the country.

It pointed out that waiting time for rheumatology out-patient appointments in St James’s Hospital in Dublin has reduced from one year to three months and surgical dermatology in Tallaght Hospital in Dublin reduced from five years to three.

Also the waiting time for urology in the western region reduced from four years to less than one year.

NTPF chief executive Pat O’Byrne said 2007 was another good year and for the public patients they were able to facilitate with treatments or appointments.

While the average waiting time for the most common operations is now two to five months, compared with two to five years in 2002 when the fund was established, Mr O’Byrne said the NTPF was concerned that some patients were still waiting far longer than necessary for treatment.