Varadkar says lengthy waiting lists will be gone by end of year

Long-term waiting lists for inpatient and day case procedures will be eliminated by the end of the year, Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has pledged. He warned however that the waiting list figures for November 2014, to be released today, would show waiting lists rising – "and they will continue to rise for a number of months, not least because we have had to cancel so many elective surgeries this month".

The Minister, however, said the Department of Health was working with the HSE to put in place a plan “to eliminate very long waiters” by the end of the year. There would not be “significant improvement in elective waiting times in the early part of the year”, but they expected improvement would occur later in the year.

The challenge, Mr Varadkar said, was to minimise the need for cancellation at short notice and to manage the impact of such cancellations effectively. He said scheduling of patients for surgery would be vigorously monitored by the HSE throughout the year and he suggested there should be more scheduling of elective surgery in the summer time.

Mr Varadkar told Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher that because emergency departments were much busier in winter, elective surgeries were deferred. "It might make more sense from now on to plan to do fewer elective procedures in January and February and during the summer to keep the wards open and to do more elective procedures at that time." This would be a way of "smoothing out" the activity in hospitals, he said.

Mr Kelleher was sharply critical of the extensive waiting lists and asked when the Minister expected an improvement. There had been an increase in the budget, but the waiting lists “are moving in the wrong direction”.

The Minister said the increased budget meant 20,000 more day cases would be dealt within in 201, and that there were specific initiatives for scoliosis, endoscopy, ophthalmic services for children and orthodontics.

In October last year, 59,463 people were on inpatient day case lists, of whom 54,250 were adults and 5,205 were children, Mr Kelleher said. “Those on the lists, who require some service from the health service, have been waiting an inordinate length of time.” Pledging the elimination of “long waiter” by the end of the year, Mr Varadkar stressed that “not all waiting lists are increasing” and some were decreasing.