Treatment waiting time falls to two-and-a-half months

AVERAGE treatment waiting times for public patients have fallen to their lowest level ever at just two-and-a-half months.

The National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF), which arranges treatment for public patients in private hospitals, said just 611 patients were waiting over a year, compared to more than 4,000 two years ago.

The latest annual report from the NTPF shows that faster treatment was arranged for 28,758 public patients last year.

NTPF chief executive Pat O’Byrne said progress had been made in reducing long waiting lists in Letterkenny and Sligo hospitals.

He said Letterkenny had been the worst-performing hospital in Ireland up to two years ago.

In January 2008, Letterkenny and Sligo had 960 and 434 public patients waiting longer than 12 months. Those figures have now been reduced to just 23 and five respectively.

Of those patients waiting longer than 12 months, 66% (398) are waiting in just five hospitals – Tallaght, Dublin, Tullamore, Co Offaly, Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, all of which had persistently lengthy waiting lists, according to the NTPF – and Mid West Regional Hospital, Co Limerick, and Temple Street Children’s Hospital, Dublin, which had shown steady improvement.

Mr O’Byrne said numbers of longest-waiting patients had been dramatically reduced in 39 hospitals throughout the country following strong co-operation with the fund.

“The NTPF cannot accept that this solution works for the vast majority of public hospitals and their patients, yet still has not in the case of five hospitals,” he said.

Health Minister Mary Harney, who launched the report, said low waiting times had been maintained through the first quarter of 2010 as well, a time when there was also extremely high demand for hospital services due to the weather.

The NTPF is aiming to arrange treatment for around 31,000 longest-waiting patients this year.

The most common procedures undertaken last year were general surgery (5,366), ophthalmology (4,366) and ear, nose and throat (ENT) (2,428). The NTPF also arranged for 2,513 MRI consultations.

The vast majority of public patients were treated in private hospitals.

No patient was sent overseas for treatment last year.