The Government's "blueprint" for tackling hospital waiting lists and waiting times was published shortly before the Minister for Finance rose to deliver his Budget speech yesterday. The Minister announced £20 million for the Waiting List Initiative.
The Report of the Review Group on the Waiting List Initiative concluded that a series of initiatives had to be taken if waiting lists and times are to be reduced substantially. The Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, said the report had been welcomed by the Government as "the blueprint for tackling unduly long waiting lists and waiting times".
In future, the problem would be addressed in a "structured, co-ordinated and multi-disciplinary manner, across the entire healthcare system". The group, set up by Mr Cowen in April, said in its report that it believed some hospitals have reached capacity and the latest data revealed that bed occupancy rates in Irish hospitals were the highest in the EU.
It also said the current system of allocating funding to hospitals might be acting as a disincentive to hospitals to improve their waiting lists. The group considered whether the basis on which this funding was currently allocated "might send inappropriate signals in their regard to hospitals, who might fear that an improvement in their waiting list performance would lead to a reduction in WLI funding".
The group pointed out that the Waiting List Initiative had been an important element of hospital activity since its inception in 1993. "Inevitably, questions can be raised about validation (and hence the true extent) of waiting lists, the net effect of WLI on waiting lists and waiting times, and the management of waiting lists at hospital level." However, it pointed out, the Waiting List Initiative had funded a large number of procedures and enabled thousands of patients to receive treatment more quickly than would have been possible under normal hospital service.