A new plan, which aims to “stabilise and reduce waiting lists and waiting times for elective care in Ireland”, has been launched by the Minister for Health.

The 2022 Waiting List Action Plan aims to reduce waiting lists by 18% this year, which if achieved, will bring the number of people waiting down to its lowest level in five years.

The plan will place particular focus on 15 high volume inpatient day case procedures such as cataracts, tonsillectomies, hip replacements, knee replacements, angiograms, laparoscopies and total abdominal hysterectomies. The aim is to ensure that every person waiting for more than six months who is clinically ready will be offered treatment.

These 15 procedures currently account for around one-third of people who are currently waiting for an inpatient or day case procedure.

“Without this plan, it is estimated that the total number of people on the active waiting lists, which is about 720,000 people today, would increase to well in excess of a million people by the end of the year. So this plan details how we intend to ensure that 1.7 million people are treated and can be removed from the waiting list,” Minster Donnelly said.

Active patients are those who are waiting for an appointment date for their treatment. Projections for this year show that over 1.5 million patients will be added to active waiting lists, which will place huge pressure on services. Many of these may have chosen to avoid seeking medical help during the pandemic, while others may not have been able to access non-urgent care.

The plan allocates €350 million to the HSE and the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF). This €350 million includes existing funding of €100 million allocated to the NTPF for 2022 plus additional funding of €50 million, providing it with a total budget of €150 million for the year.

This 2022 plan is the first year of a “multi-annual reform programme”, which aims to bring about “significant and lasting change in waiting list numbers”, the Department of Health added.

However, responding to the plan, the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) insisted that it is destined to fail because it "does not address the fundamental underlying issue which is the crisis in our medical workforce".

The IMO highlighted that there are currently almost 700 consultant vacancies and no plans to increase trainee numbers. Furthermore, existing trainees are being forced to work in excess of legal hours to keep the current service going.

"This plan relies on further exploting an already exhausted workforce, working with inadequate resources in terms of staffed beds, operating theatres and other clinical facilities - many of which continue to be closed due to Covid outbreaks among patients and staff. It's too little to impact on the scale of the problem and utterly fails to address the root causes that have brought our health service to this sorry state," commented IMO consultant chair, Dr Clive Kilgallen.