Hospitals 'will have funding cut' if they fail to meet waiting time targets

Hospitals that fail to meet ambitious new targets on waiting times will suffer cuts to funding under a new scheme to be rolled out by Government.

The Irish Independent reports that Health Minister Leo Varadkar will effectively fine any hospital that does not meet the goal of reducing waiting lists to 15 months by the end of this year.

Officials in the HSE and Department of Health thrashed out a new agreement in recent days to divert funding for procedures to hospitals that perform best.

Mr Varadkar is also providing an extra €25 million to help incentivise hospitals to cut their waiting times.

Professor Anthony Staines from the department of Nursing and Human Sciences at Dublin City University, said the additional funding "could be a bit of a double-edged sword."

"The resources are clearly needed," he said. "There's no point saying 'we're going to reduce waiting lists' and not putting any money into it.

"Waiting lists are a symptom of a problem in a system, and this is a problem that goes wider and deeper than acute hospitals."