A new agency tasked with reducing and eliminating hospital waiting lists will lead to Galway being prioritised for funding and other benefits, that is according to the chairperson of HSE West regional health forum, Padraig Conneely.
“Galway is in the eye of the Minister and the Department of Health,” said a confident Cllr Conneely yesterday as he welcomed the Government’s move to establish a new Special Delivery Unit (SDU ) and to stop referrals to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF ) after July.
Details of the SDU were officially announced yesterday along with the appointment of renowned international expert Dr Martin Connor, who has a proven track record in health service improvement.
It is expected that the new SDU, which was promised under the Programme for Government, will be provided with weekly waiting list data and will visit hospitals that are not performing well. The NTPF, which since 2002 has paid for private treatment for public patients waiting for more than three months, will also be affected, with hospitals instructed to no longer refer patients after July.
It is further expected that around €29 million of the €85 million NTPF fund budget will now be allocated to the new agency and that much of this money will go toward hospitals with the longest waiting lists and will be used to reduce overcrowding in emergency departments.
Always critical of the NTPF, Cllr Conneely welcomed the announcement, confidently asserting that Galway is set to benefit from the allocation of funds as it has the worst waiting lists in the country.
“€85 million was allocated to the NTPF and now this is to cease with some of that money being put back into the hospitals with the longest waiting lists. I can assure you that Galway has the worst and the longest waiting list in the country, so Galway will recieve top priority for that funding. Galway is the worst under all categories, it is a basket case when it comes to health.
“The new Special Delivery Unit is going to ease those problems by putting back money into a hospital like UHG which has the capacity to do the work.”
Regarding the appointment of Dr Connor to the SDU Cllr Conneely noted that the work Dr Connor carried out in Northern Ireland resulted in the waiting lists being virtually “wiped out” within 18 months.
“He is the one who did that, so it can be done. I certainly welcome it [SDU] and it will be starting with Galway, bringing with it major benefits and improvements. I am confident and hopeful that it will lead to the end of the suffering of people languishing on waiting lists for years,” he said.
