Upcoming improvements to CHI Spinal Service Waiting List & Activity Report

Friday, 2nd August 2024:

The National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) is an independent statutory body established by the Minister for Health, which collates and validates information on patients waiting for public hospital treatment. CHI’s Spinal Surgery monthly reports are currently compiled manually, but we are moving towards compiling these automatically, and in line with the NTPF’s protocols.

Children's Health Ireland has been working with the Paediatric Spinal Taskforce, set up by the Minister for Health, which includes representatives of patients, to improve and reform our service. This is one of those reforms.

When we publish the next CHI Spinal Service Waiting List & Activity Report (for August, to be published on Friday 6th September), it will look different and will contain new information.

Waiting list data will be broken down into four categories, in line with all other NTPF waiting list reports.:

1. Active: A patient who is waiting for a scheduled date for admission in the future and does not have a “To Come In” (TCI) surgery date assigned.
2. Pre-Admit: A patient who has been assigned a “To Come In” (TCI) surgery date.
3. Planned Procedure: A patient placed on a waiting list for a planned procedure is a patient who had an initial episode of care and requires a further planned, timed or surveillance procedure in the future as part of their ongoing clinical care and/or treatment.
4. Suspended: Patients with an offer of a TCI surgery date who, for clinical or personal reasons, are not ready to proceed with their care and/or treatment may be temporarily suspended on the waiting list on one occasion only. The suspension process is also recommended to support the management of patients being treated through NTPF or HSE-funded commissioning initiatives.

Suspended patients have been temporarily removed from the active waiting list. As the NTPF outline, there are only three reasons why a patient may be suspended from a wating list.

1. Clinical Suspension: Clinical suspensions are informed by clinical decisions and usually due to the patient not being ready to have their surgery/treatment at this time. Patients are suspended from the “active” list, and then returned to the “active” list when they are ready for surgery.
2. Non-Clinical Suspensions: A patient may wish to postpone their surgery for a period of time for their own reasons. (e.g. exams/school or primary carer obligations)
3. Commissioning Initiatives: To support the management of patients who are having their surgery in another hospital through funded outsourcing, the patient should be moved from the “active” list to the “suspended” list.

CHI’s Spinal Services Management Unit actively monitors the suspended waiting list on a weekly basis to ensure there are valid reasons for patients to remain in this category and to get them back on the active list as soon as possible.

Please be assured that while the way in which we are presenting this information will change, this will have no impact on where your child is on the waiting list for their surgery, or how patients are prioritised for their surgeries. Instead, it means that the way we present patient information will be greatly improved. It will allow us to better track patients and see any issues in real-time. It will help us to manage suspensions to ensure valid clinical reasons for delays. This helps us make sure patients get the care they need and aim to move them more smoothly towards their spinal surgery.

See the latest updates on scoliosis related surgeries at the links below.