Mayo General Hospital, while reducing its waiting times for all specialities over the past number of years, is still longer than the national average. The average waiting time for all specialities at Mayo General Hospital is 3.2 months, despite the national average falling to 2.6 months.
The reason for this decline nationally and in Mayo is due to the National Treatment Purchase Fund which arranged faster treatment for 36,269 public patients in 2008. The progress was announced by the Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney TD as she launched the NTPF’s latest annual report.
Launching the report, Minister Harney said: “I am pleased with the progress the NTPF made in 2008, as it continued its important work of reducing waiting times for patients. The median average wait time for any procedure in the public hospital system is now 2.6 months – the lowest it has ever been. This compares to waiting times of between two and five years in 2002, the year the fund was established. The fund is a proven example of how a targeted solution can be applied to a specific long term problem with real and measurable results. The benefits it provides have been felt throughout the country, with almost 150,000 public patients treated nationwide.”
The fund will continue its work arranging treatment for the country’s longest waiting patients in 2009, with plans to provide faster treatment for approximately 30,000 patients.
Speaking at the launch, Pat O’Byrne, chief executive of the National Treatment Purchase Fund, said: “In 2009 we will continue to work to lower the waiting times faced by public patients. We will also continue to ensure best value for money is achieved throughout all aspects of our operations, particularly in achieving best possible prices in our negotiations with all private hospitals to ensure the maximum number of longest waiting patients possible receive their treatment.”
Latest figures from the Patient Treatment Register show a 17 per cent decrease in the numbers of patients waiting for an operation compared to this time last year. A total of 13,193 adults and children are currently waiting more than three months for surgery across 44 hospitals. Of these 7,080 are waiting three to six months and 4,927 are waiting six to 12 months.
A total of 1,186 patients are waiting over a year for their surgery, reflecting a 65 per cent reduction in numbers waiting compared to December 2007 and a further 35 per cent reduction since the start of the year.
