Simon Harris to consider having one hospital waiting list

Health Minister Simon Harris will “seriously consider” the potential creation of a single national hospital waiting list to replace individual facility lists after the proposal was put forward by the opposition.

The Fine Gael minister confirmed he is open to the possible move in response to criticism of his five-point plan to address the country’s chronic waiting list crisis.

Earlier in the week, Mr Harris announced the new five-point system based on the return of the National Treatment Purchase Fund along with new inspections of hospitals from department officials, extra funding and the creation of reform “lead” roles in facilities to ensure plans are implemented.

Mr Harris said the moves will help lower the massive 530,000 people currently on hospital waiting lists and that he wants to see a 50% reduction in the 7,000 people waiting more than 18 months for in-patient care by the year end.

Despite Mr Harris’s insistence that the new plan should be seen in the wider context of health service reform, his proposals were criticised by doctor and nurse representative groups, and opposition parties.

The latter group included a counter-proposal midweek from Sinn Féin health spokeswoman Louise O’Reilly to put in place a single national waiting list system that would replace individual facility lists and see patients sent to hospitals based on space rather than geographical proximity.

Responding to the opposition suggestion at a media event at Loughlinstown Hospital in Co Dublin yesterday, Mr Harris said he was not opposed to such a move.

While saying a number of other plans need to be discussed, he indicated he wanted to “seriously consider” the Sinn Féin proposal and to find out what it will entail in terms of funding and actual reductions in waiting list rates.

“I actually think Louise O’Reilly made a very constructive proposal this week,” he said. “It’s something I want to look at and seriously consider.

“I share the view that there has to be a better system for waiting lists, a better way of measuring waiting lists, and there has to be better data in terms of who is waiting, how long they are waiting for, how many hospitals have they been referred to, what are their needs.

“So, I actually think Deputy O’Reilly’s proposal is very constructive and I look forward to discussing it with her.”

Mr Harris previously stated all political parties must work together to solve Ireland’s health crisis through an agreed 10-year plan for the system which is being devised in part by a cross-party Dáil committee on the future of the service.

He also said he is as “inpatient as any healthcare professional I have heard in the media wanting to see improvements” after coming in for significant criticism over the plan.

However, despite the comments, Mr Harris said he is “absolutely unapologetic” in wanting to put in place a structure for “sustained improvements” and stressed his proposal is “not a big bang solution” as it must be seen in the context of wider reforms as no one-step way to solve the crisis exists.