Tackling treatment waiting list
Last year parliament granted €25 million to hospital districts to help investigate and introduce measures to reduce waiting lists for treatment. A similar sum was set aside for this by municipal authorities throughout the country.
The additional spending has had an impact on treatment waiting lists, with some 60,000 people receiving treatment by the end of June this year.
The €50 million has been targeted at reducing the chronic situation of queues for outpatient treatment. Last October hospital districts reported that 110,000 patients around the country had been waiting for outpatient treatment for longer than the three-week maximum period. A further 165,000 patients were waiting for types of specialised treatment beyond the three and six month threshold periods.
The situation of waiting lists will be subject to a full review next March.