Waiting list system plan may help patients

Sinn Fein has revealed its idea for a single, integrated hospital waiting list management system called Comhliosta, which, the party claims, would use technology to ensure that hospitals too busy to treat those on waiting lists could transfer patients to facilities in a better position to perform the procedure.

Louth TD Gerry Adams explained: ‘My colleague Cllr Tomás Sharkey recently raised the issue of the under-use of the CT ccanner in the Louth Hospital which is currently only operative three and a half days a week.

‘I subsequently submitted a Parliamentary Question to ascertain the length of the waiting list at the Louth Hospital for patients who need this type of scan.

‘ The reply from the HSE confirmed that 500 people occupy this waiting list and that the average waiting time for an appointment is 16 weeks. This is indicative of a health service bursting at the seams.

‘ The introduction of additional radiography staff would mean that the CT scanner in Dundalk could be operational five days a week and would have a positive impact on waiting lists. That would however cost money which Fine Gael is averse to spending on healthcare.

‘Earlier this month health minister Simon Harris outlined his five point plan to deal with hospital waiting lists saying he will bring a level of political leadership to the problem. Since then healthcare professionals, commentators and politicians have all publicly agreed that this plan is destined for failure’.

He said the party had looked to international best practice and proposed a new single, integrated hospital waiting list management system where people can move from one hospital to another to reduce waiting times, calling the system Comhliosta.

Mr Adams said: ‘ Under the current system waiting lists vary drastically across our hospitals. Patients do not know where they stand on the list or how long they will be waiting. People waiting for similar procedures can wait different lengths of time depending on which hospital they have been referred to.

‘We want to do away with that. We would introduce a new IT system based on the one in use in the Portuguese health which would generate new maximum waiting times by transferring those on the list from hospitals that are struggling to meet demand to those that are in a better position to perform the procedure more timely.

‘ This of course would have to be done in conjunction with a major programme of investment in our public hospital system including beds and staff numbers which is where Minister Harris’s plan falls down.

‘ That is why Sinn Féin, in our health policy published ahead of the general election in February, proposed a €3.3billion investment in health services’.