THE “VAST MAJORITY” of Irish public hospitals have no patients waiting more than 12 months for treatment.
That is according to Health Minister James Reilly, who told the Dáil that this comes on foot of the establishment of the Special Delivery Unit.
His answer came in reply to a question from Deputy Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, who was asking about a specific person who was waiting for medical treatment.
Minister Reilly told Deputy Corcoran Kennedy that he was “determined to address the issues which cause unacceptable delays in patients receiving treatment in our hospitals”.
In this regard I have established the Special Delivery Unit (SDU), which will work to unblock access to acute services by dramatically improving the flow of patients through the system, and by streamlining waiting lists, including referrals from GPs.
He said that the SDU is working closely with its partner agencies, mainly the HSE and the NTPF.
Minister Reilly added that as a priority, “public hospitals were instructed to ensure that, by the end of 2011, they had no patients waiting more than 12 months for treatment”.
He said that this had occurred in the majority of hospitals, and that they were now working to decrease waiting times even further.
I can confirm that the vast majority of hospitals achieved this objective. During 2012 the SDU will support hospitals in the delivery of a 9 month maximum wait time for inpatient or daycase surgery.
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