Hospital waiting lists ease down 5.3%

Hospital waiting lists for the first quarter of this year fell5.3 per cent, according to figures released by the Department of Health this evening.

According to the figures, 26,382 people remained on waiting lists at the end of March 2001. Responding to the data, the Minister for Health Michael Martin said: "In 2000 targeted waiting-list-funding resulted in nearly 19,000 additional proceduresbeing carried out on patients. £35.5 million is being made available to health agencies in 2001 to support waiting list procedures.

"I will continue to focus on hospital waiting lists and waiting times to ensure that the trend in waiting lists continues downward and to ensure shorter waiting times", he said.

However, today’s figures indicate that the reduction in the waiting lists is slowing. In the previous quarter to December 2000, waiting lists fell by over 2,000 people.

Within those target specialities, waiting lists for cardiac surgery have fallen by 52 per cent, gynaecology has fallen by 49 per cent, ophthalmology dropped by 29 per cent while those awaiting orthopaedic procedures dropped by 27 per cent, the department has claimed.

Mr Martin added he has requested that all health agencies in future produce separate in-patient and day-case data. It is also the Minister’s intention to ensure standard criteria are used for the validation of waiting lists.