Information on the National Treatment Purchase Fund

gazzer

Hi. My dad has been on a waiting list for 18 months for an operation on the top part of this spine. As time has gone on his pain has gotten to the stage where the doctor is offering him morphine patches.

He was down at the Mater Hospital on Friday and asked the secretary of the consultant he is under if there was any movement on the waiting list. He was told the usual. That he was on the list and will be called when he is at the top of the list.

He is in agony so he asked about paying to have it done privately. However the secretary told him to enquire about the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

I was under the impression that that was done away with but I told him I would ring up anyway and see what information they have. As I suspected the recorded message told me that the role of the NTPF had changed and that if I had an enquiry about a waiting list I was to contact the hospital directly.

Just wondering if anybody knew any more about it?

Thanks

his_dudeness

It was morphed into the Special Delivery Unit, which for a period of time anyway, was taking the longest waiters and sending them to the Private hospitals. Not sure if it's still as active. It's possible that, even at 18 months, your Dad is not waiting longer than other patients for the service

gazzer

his_dudeness wrote: »

It was morphed into the Special Delivery Unit, which for a period of time anyway, was taking the longest waiters and sending them to the Private hospitals. Not sure if it's still as active. It's possible that, even at 18 months, your Dad is not waiting longer than other patients for the service

Thanks for the reply. Yeah it seems that he operation that my Dad needs has a very long waiting list. I think at this stage paying to go private is his only option.

Spook_ie

Firstly I'd get the name of the procedure that your dad needs ie cervical fusion/diskectomy or whatever it is and then armed with that info, ring around the private hospitals and ask for a quote. I've had 2 microdiskectomies done in the Mater private & total VHI bill from my recollection was around the 6k mark but that was for a 4 night stay (last op Jan 13). Hearing great things about the Neurosurgical/spinal dept in the Santry Sports Clinic, my guess is that they would be 'cheaper' than the likes of the Mater Private.

January

his_dudeness wrote: »

It was morphed into the Special Delivery Unit, which for a period of time anyway, was taking the longest waiters and sending them to the Private hospitals. Not sure if it's still as active. It's possible that, even at 18 months, your Dad is not waiting longer than other patients for the service

It was still active as recently as July as my daughter had a procedure done by an ent specialist in the Mater private under it then.

drzhivago

his_dudeness wrote: »

It was morphed into the Special Delivery Unit, which for a period of time anyway, was taking the longest waiters and sending them to the Private hospitals. Not sure if it's still as active. It's possible that, even at 18 months, your Dad is not waiting longer than other patients for the service

I believe, maybe in error but they had been trying to do a lot of cheap non complex work e.g. cataracts, tonsils, grommets on the NTPF or SDU, that way they could say waiting list has dropped by big numbers

Spinal surgery is complex, only a few people do it, operations take considerable amount of time and rehab and not many would be done per week , have not really heard of many actual surgeries taking place through such arrangements, however have heard of people being offered private appointments for assessment only to then return to public waiting list to be reassessed by public surgeon so he can decide if they go on his waiting list for surgery as no one else can put patient on his list

blondie3057

I had a tonsilectomy under NTPF in 2007, for free. I was looked after in the Beacon Hospital, which was amazing. I was 26 at the time and was in utter agony in the weeks prior to the op. My doctor told me to phone the NTPF who were based in an office up in Beaumont Hospital at the time. Within the week the Beacon then phoned and I had surgery following week. It was a god send. Hope this info helps, good luck.

JohnBee

Please take comfort from the fact that your fathers surgery will be delayed for needy homeless people who can now use hospitals as homeless shelters. Grrr this county makes me mad.