David Cullinane
Ceist:1065. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of people waiting for diagnostic tests at the end of quarter 4, 2025, in tabular form. [6227/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 27 January 2026
Ceisteanna (1065)
Freagraí scríofa
Waiting times for radiology and diagnostic services have been recognised as an issue for some time. This Government is committed to the implementation of the 2017 Sláintecare Report, which includes a maximum waiting time target of 10 days for a diagnostic test.
The roll out of National digital platforms such as the National Integrated Medical Imaging System (NIMIS) and the National Laboratory Information System (MedLIS) are reducing duplication, improving diagnostic accuracy, and enabling secure, rapid information sharing across all public hospitals. In 2026, the use of digital diagnostic tools will be further expanded under the Productivity and Savings Taskforce Action Plan to increase the number of diagnostic scans, alongside measures to improve the utilisation of diagnostic equipment supporting increased diagnostic capacity.
The NTPF is working to support access to radiology and in October 2024 it published a National Radiology Diagnostic Waiting List Management Protocol. As well as ensuring that patients seeking access to Radiology Diagnostic services are administratively managed in a safe, timely, fair, and equitable manner whilst waiting, the protocol will facilitate improved data collection and reporting about patients on Radiology Diagnostic waiting lists.
In the interim, the information that is currently being collected as part of a pilot project is being tested and validated at hospital, hospital region and national level and as such should not be used/reported without the context of the caveats set out below:
Data is subject to inclusions and exclusions which are documented in the Data Profile Document. This document is available from Acute Operations and has been circulated to all Hospital Regions.
Data contains urgent, routine and surveillance/planned activity which is currently not broken down in detail, as such this includes surveillance/planned activity which may not be exceeding planned date.
Data is still undergoing validation at Hospital and Hospital Region level. Data does not take into account local nuances at site level (Site profile developed to support understanding of same).
The purpose of this aggregate data is to provide a National Level overview of the number of patients waiting for modalities of CT, MRI and Ultrasound.
This report is not intended to be used for the active management of hospital diagnostics waiting list, local reports and mechanisms should continue to be used for the management of diagnostics waiting lists at hospital level.
The NTPF provides my Department with quarterly reports which set out waiting list data for CT, MRI and Ultrasound by hospital and time band. The quarterly report for quarter 4 of 2025 has not yet been provided to my Department, and the Deputy has been provided with the most recent report available for quarter 3 of 2025 in response to previous parliamentary questions.