Hospitals face waiting list fines

Hospital trusts face fines over waiting lists

Hospital trusts in Northern Ireland with excessively long waiting lists face sanctions under government plans.

Details of the penalties have been announced by Northern Ireland Health Minister Shaun Woodward during a visit to the Royal Victoria Hospital.

About 47,000 people are currently on waiting lists, with 4,000 of those waiting for more than a year.

Health trusts must see patients within 12 months or they will lose funds to pay for the treatment elsewhere.

The plan is to treat everyone within 12 months, bringing the province more into line with the rest of the UK.

Mr Woodward said the current system had to be changed.

"The trusts have the money. Now we will insist that they treat the patients," he said.

"If they do not treat them, or if they can't, then we, from today, will take the money back for the treatment of that patient.

"And we will buy, either from another trust in Northern Ireland or, in exceptional circumstances if we have to, from outside Northern Ireland, the treatment the patient needs and has been kept waiting for."

BBC Northern Ireland health correspondent Dot Kirby said the minister wanted to see the number of people waiting for more than a year reduced to zero.

Our waiting lists are still a lot worse than anywhere else in the UK Dot Kirby BBC NI health correspondent

She said anyone waiting for more than a year would be contacted within three months by the hospital.

The hospital would either give the patient a date for treatment, or inform them they will be treated in another hospital either in Northern Ireland or somewhere else in the UK.

A similar system was introduced in Wales and the minister said the number of people waiting a long time for treatment fell dramatically.

Dr Michael McBride, medical director of the Royal Hospitals, gave a "broad welcome" to the minister's statement.

"We treat over a third of a million patients at the Royal Hospitals each year and I think the minister has clearly indicated that there is a need for change in the system and for more streamlining and efficiency in the system." he said.

Standards

Mr Woodward's initiative was also welcomed by the Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke Association.

A spokesperson said the "level of service" should be brought up to the same standards as Germany and France.

"In those countries the total waiting time is no more than six weeks, even for a serious operation like cardiac surgery," the spokesperson said.

Sinn Fein, however, said the minister's plan would lead to the creation of a "two-tier health service.

The party's health spokesman, Sean O'Dowd, said: "Those hospitals which are currently under-staffed and under-resourced will be further penalised by the measures of financial sanctions announced this morning."

Ulster Unionist Alan McFarland said while Mr Woodward's speech was long overdue his party broadly welcomed it.

"We are glad to see that the minister and the department have finally decided to act on the scandal that is Northern Ireland's worryingly long waiting lists," Mr McFarland said.

The SDLP's Carmel Hanna said the "stick approach" alone would not work.

"We need to find out why the waiting lists are so high," she said.

Kieran McCarthy, of Alliance, welcomed the initiative, saying it "should ease some of ths suffering" of people on waiting lists.