Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 July 2025
875. Deputy Frankie Feighan asked the Minister for Health the specific measures in place to reduce waiting times for dermatology out-patients; the steps being taken to achieve the KPIs of the national waiting list action plan; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37776/25]
View answerIt is acknowledged that many patients are still waiting too long for hospital appointments and treatments. I am conscious of the burden that this places on patients and their families.
A multi-annual approach through a series of Waiting List Action Plans has been adopted to address this issue. Commencing in late 2021, these plans encompass short-term actions to increase capacity and activity in the short and immediate term, and longer-term reform measures to sustainably reduce both hospital waiting lists and waiting times.
I published the Waiting List Action Plan (WLAP) for 2025 on February 12th, representing the Government’s commitment to reducing waiting times for patients and improving access to hospital care.
In keeping with this commitment, significant funding of €420m is being allocated to the Waiting List Action Plan for 2025, €190m for the HSE and €230m for the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF).
With the 2025 plan, we will continue to build upon the progress delivered to date under the multi annual action plan approach, progressing towards the ultimate vision of a public healthcare service in which everyone has timely access to high-quality scheduled care, where and when they need it.
This year’s WLAP focuses on reducing waiting times for scheduled care and sets out four key targets aimed at achieving this objective, namely:
• Having 50% of patients waiting less than the Sláintecare wait time targets (i.e. 10 weeks for outpatients (OPD) and 12 weeks for inpatient and day case (IPDC)) by the end of 2025.
• Reducing the weighted average wait time for scheduled care to 5.5 months.
• Increasing the proportion of OPD patients waiting less than 12 months to 90% by the end of 2025.
• Reducing the proportion of patients waiting over 24 months, or at risk of waiting over 24 months by the end of 2025, by 90% this year.
The Department of Health worked closely with the HSE and the NTPF to develop the specific actions in this year’s WLAP which are the means through which the targets will be achieved. WLAP 2025 sets out 25 actions under the themes of “Delivering Capacity”, “Enabling Scheduled Care Reform” and “Reforming Scheduled Care”.
Delivering Capacity sets out a number of initiatives to maximise scheduled care capacity.
Reforming Scheduled Care includes initiatives to support the reform of waiting lists to drive the most efficient use of available resources in a patient-centred way, and includes continuing to progress the work of the High Volume Specialty Working Groups for Dermatology, Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology. Another key aspect of reform within the WLAP is to further progress the rollout of Modernised Care Pathways (MCPs), including in respect of Dermatology.
Enabling Scheduled Care Reform encompasses a number of digital and enabling technologies and tools that will support and facilitate the longer-term reform of waiting lists and includes the implementation of specialised referral forms for the high volume specialties, one of which is Dermatology.
