Hospitals incentivised to cut waiting lists

Hospitals that fail to meet ambitious new targets on waiting times will suffer cuts to funding under a new scheme to be rolled out by Government.

The Irish Independent reports that Health Minister Leo Varadkar will effectively fine any hospital that does not meet the goal of reducing waiting lists to 15 months by the end of this year.

Officials in the HSE and Department of Health thrashed out a new agreement in recent days to divert funding for procedures to hospitals that perform best.

Mr Varadkar is also providing an extra 25 million euro to help incentivise hospitals to cut their waiting times.

Professor Anthony Staines from Dublin City University says that although its welcome news its not the solution to the problem;