Hospital waiting lists have fallen for the second successive quarter of this year, and were down by 8 per cent for the first six months to the end of June, the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, announced yesterday.
"These latest figures bring the overall reduction in waiting lists since the beginning of 1999 to nearly 3,000," said Mr Cowen. The Government's "investment in the waiting list initiative" was enabling hospitals to carry out the additional activity necessary to reduce in-patient waiting lists.
He said £20 million had been allocated to hospitals throughout the State to enable them to provide treatment under the waiting list initiative. This was equivalent to 2 1/2 times the figure allocated in 1997. Public hospital in-patient waiting lists now stood at 33,924.
He said the allocation of "dedicated waiting list funding" in a structured manner remained a priority. This was in line with the recommendations of the waiting list review group. It involved the earmarking of specific funding for waiting list procedures at the start of the year, and rewarding hospitals which performed best in the first half of 1999.
He said £3 million had been awarded to the best-performing hospitals.
However, the Fine Gael spokesman on health, Mr Alan Shatter, said the Minister's "self-congratulatory statement" should not be taken seriously.
"The present Government came into office promising that the then hospital waiting lists of 29,000 patients would be substantially reduced. During the present Minister's term, the waiting lists grew to 36,500 and the number of patients awaiting hospital treatment today remains substantially higher than in June 1997."
He said that in the present economic climate a coherent and structured reduction of hospital waiting lists should by now have ensured that the numbers were well below 20,000.