Fewer than half of the people who were offered "first-time" consultant appointments last year by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) actually had consultations, according to the organisation's annual report.
Under the NTPF pilot outpatient programme, almost 18,000 people on waiting lists to see consultants in 25 public hospitals around the country were contacted. But only 6,732 people attended for appointments offered to them by the NTPF. Hospitals co-operating with the pilot programme supply the contact details of patients on their consultant waiting lists to the NTPF, which makes contact with the patients and arranges consultations in private hospitals.
Almost a quarter of those contacted no longer required appointments and were removed from the waiting lists; 24 per cent did not respond when contacted; and 11 per cent declined the offer of a consultant visit at a private hospital, choosing to remain on a public hospital waiting list.
And 10 per cent of those who accepted offers of appointments did not turn up at the hospital.
The chief executive of the NTPF, Pat O'Byrne, yesterday called for a greater validation of the numbers on waiting lists.
"We were surprised by the figures," he said. "We are not quite sure why this has happened. There could be a doubling up on some lists;. In some cases, children may have outgrown a problem before they are seen, and other people may have opted to take the private route. Whatever the reason, there is a need for ongoing updating of the waiting lists."
He said that there was room to expand the scheme over more patients and more specialities. "In some areas of the country, engagement with the NTPF is very small," he said.
He added that the NTPF hoped to arrange treatment for 27,500 patients in 2007, including 10,000 outpatient appointments.
Treatment has been arranged for more than 75,000 people under the NTPF since it began in 2002, according to the report, and the average waiting time for operations has reduced from between two and five years to between two and five months. Operations have been carried out in every speciality area. The most common procedures last year were on cataracts, tonsils and adenoids, and hips and knees.
Speaking at the publication of the report yesterday, Minister for Health Mary Harney said that in the Dublin area alone there were 14,000 people waiting over four years for procedures before the establishment of the NTPF.
"Patients want treatment, they don't care where that happens, they don't care how the system is funded, they want high-quality treatment, and that's what they get through the NTPF," she said.
