Waiting list targets missed

OFFICIAL TARGETS specifying that children should not have to wait longer than three months for inpatient treatment are being widely missed, according to a report given to the Health Service Executive (HSE) board last week.

The report, drawn up by HSE management, says that on the basis of the manner in which it calculates the figures (which differs from the methodology of the National Treatment Purchase Fund), in March, 56 per cent of children were waiting more than three months.

The report says that at the end of the first quarter, 1,125 children were waiting longer than three months and 622 children were on waiting lists for more than six months. It also reveals that 31 children were waiting for inpatient treatment in hospitals for more than two years.

The report also says that at the end of March, 1,565 children were waiting more than three months for day case treatment with nearly 900 on waiting lists for more than six months.

The report states that at the end of March there was a total of 40,781 patients overall on waiting lists for inpatient and day case treatment in hospitals around the State.

The HSE figure is higher than the official waiting list statistics produced by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) as under its definitions patients are not considered to be on waiting lists until they have been waiting for more than three months.

The NTPF believes there are about 17,000 patients awaiting surgical procedures and a further 5,000 on medical waiting lists for inpatient care.

Meanwhile, the HSE report also reveals that the official maximum waiting time of 12 hours in hospital emergency departments for patients considered to require admission is also being breached widely.

The report says that during the first quarter there were 4,607 occurrences where patients waited more than 12 hours for admission. "This represents 42 per cent of all patient admission waits during this year so far," it states.

The report says that in the first quarter of 2007, patients in an emergency department had to wait longer than 12 hours for admission on 4,125 occasions.

"Based on a census at 2pm each day, the cumulative number of persons awaiting admission [following a decision to admit] rose from 10,500 by March 2007 to over 11,000 by March 2008," the report says.

It states that the numbers awaiting admission for January and February this year were higher than the corresponding figures the previous year but that the figures for March dropped slightly below the 2007 level.

"The number of occurrences where patients waited over 24 hours also increased, from 635 in 2007 to 865 in 2008," it states.