Hospital waiting lists - Improvement greeted with scepticism

HAVING massaged hospital waiting lists for years, nobody was surprised when yesterdays’ claimed improvement was greeted with a large dose of scepticism.

Predictably, hospital consultants were critical of the Government’s failure to achieve its pre-election target of eliminating waiting lists.

While conceding that point, Health Minister Mary Harney argued that a new and more reliable system for compiling data showed waiting lists had improved at seven hospitals. According to the National Treatment Purchase Fund, the waiting time at six hospitals in Dublin and one in Limerick have been significantly reduced.