Blow for tackling health waiting lists

Two health services tasked with reducing Ireland’s chronic waiting list problems have been hit with a combined 64% cut to their funds.

Details of the cut to the National Treatment Purchase Fund and the Special Delivery Unit were revealed in the Department of Finance’s expenditure allocation document.

The report (pages 18-20), which can be read online at www.irishexaminer.com, outline a series of additional reductions which were not immediately apparent yesterday. And among those details is the news two vital waiting list reduction bodies will see their funding reduced from €13.9m this year to €5.1m — a fall of 64%.

The NTPF works by helping people waiting excessive lengths of time on public hospital waiting lists in Ireland to access quicker private care in Britain and Northern Ireland.

The SDU is specifically tasked with cutting scheduled and unscheduled waiting lists, and with reducing emergency department trolley delays.