Hospital waiting lists down but short of Government target

There were more than 27,000 patients on hospital waiting lists across the State at the end of last year, according to new figures released today by the Department of Health.

This is down almost 2,000 on the corresponding figure for December 2002, far short of the "abolition" the Government parties promised would be achieved by June 2004 when they were campaigning before the last General Election.

Opposition parties today criticised the Government for its failure to keep its election pledge. The leader of Fine Gael, Mr Enda Kenny, said 27,000 people remained on such lists. The Labour Party, led by leader Mr Pat Rabbitte and deputy leader Ms Liz McManus, held a protest on the issue outside Leinster House.

In a statement today, the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF), which arranges for adults waiting more than 12 months and children waiting more than six months to be treated privately at home or abroad, claimed waiting times had fallen significantly.

It said that compared with 2003, the number of patients waiting for more than 12 months had dropped from 39 per cent to 20 per cent. It added that those waiting for a procedure for more than 24 months has fallen from 16 per cent to 2.5 per cent.

The NTPF said 80 per cent of patients were now waiting less than 12 months for treatment.

The NTPF has financed 13,000 operations to date and said it is currently arranging more than 1,000 operations per month for public patients in private hospitals in the Republic, the North and in Britain.

The Department of Health has given responsibility for validating those waiting longest for treatment to the NTPF. In a statement today the NTPF said it has identified 4,500 patients who can be removed from the Department's reported figure. This is for a variety of reasons including patients no longer being available or suitable for treatment and those postponing treatment at their own request.

Handing verification of the waiting lists over to the NTPF followed concerns raised by the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, in relation to the accuracy of numbers reported to be waiting longer than 12 months.

Speaking after the publication of the figure today, Mr Martin said "progress has been made to get the waiting times down and we are on track to achieve the Health Strategy targets."

According to the Labour party this is untrue. "The  Minister  is also not telling the truth when he claims that the targets set in  the  Health  Strategy are being met.  The Health Strategy said that no adult would be waiting more than 12 months by the end of 2002.  In fact today's figure show that 20 per cent of patients are waiting more than a year."