The Minister for Health’s Inpatient/Day Case Action Plan 2018 aims to reduce the overall number of patients waiting for hospital operations and procedures to under 70,000 by year end.
It also wants to ensure that the number of patients waiting longer than nine months will fall by 10,000.
The NTPF has committed to offer treatment to all patients waiting more than nine months for treatment in a number of high volume specialities – including cataract, hip and knee replacement, tonsils and scopes.
The Inpatient/Day Case Action Plan 2018 was compiled by the Department of Health, the Health Service Executive and the National Treatment Purchase Fund.
The Department of Health said that in 2018 the HSE would deliver 1.14 million hospital operations or procedures and the NTPF would deliver 20,000 inpatient day case treatments and 4,000 gastrointestinal scopes.
Welcoming the plan, Minister Simon Harris said: “In 2017, through the work of the NTPF and the HSE the annual increase in the overall number of persons waiting for a hospital procedure was halted. This year, under this new plan, we will see a significant reduction in the number waiting for a procedure. The target is that the overall number will fall to under 70,000 by the end of the year – from a peak of 86,100 in July 2017.”
