The Department of Health is looking to cut overall hospital waiting lists this year by almost 6%, according to the Waiting List Action Plan 2024.
Funding of €360m has been allocated from the Budget for the plan which has 19 actions.
Last year’s plan had a target to cut waiting lists by 10% but the final reduction was 2.7%.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said that the latest plan aims to cut the number of patients waiting longer than 12 weeks by 10%.
This relates to in-patient, day case and gastrointestinal checks.
It also aims to cut by 90% the number of patients waiting over three years or at risk of being over three years waiting.
The most recent national hospital waiting lists for February put the total number waiting for some kind of care at over 822,200.
