Health

'No evidence’ that HSE plan to reduce waiting lists is working, Robert Watt tells new chief executive

The secretary general at the Department of Health said funding could be reallocated unless executive provided evidence its initiative was working effectively

Watt also raised a number of concerns that a dashboard for tracking hospital performance for reducing waiting list times had not been produced, and said the initiative should be “expedited urgently”. Picture: RollingNews.ie

The HSE has been told that funding for an initiative to cut waiting list times could be reallocated unless it provided evidence its plan was making an impact.

Robert Watt, secretary general at the Department of Health, raised a number of concerns about the so-called modernised acute scheduled care pathways in a letter to Bernard Gloster, the HSE chief executive, in early March.

Watt raised the importance of the implementation of the pathways, which are ...