Press Release: 30 January 2026
Minister for Health publishes the Waiting Time Action Plan 2026
Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill TD, has published the Waiting Time Action Plan (WTAP) 2026, as part of this Government’s ongoing commitment to improving access to hospital care and reducing waiting times for patients.
Minister Carroll MacNeill said:
“The Waiting Time Action Plan is a multi-faceted approach with one overarching aim, to ensure people get access to faster care and achieve better health outcomes.
“It will ensure that we build on the progress we have already made in reforming our health service and continue to boost productivity and efficiency, while developing alternative care pathways and shifting towards care in community settings.”
Since the commencement of the Action Plan approach in September 2021, there have been important improvements in waiting times in hospitals across a range of metrics, as set out below.
The improvements have been achieved against the backdrop of increased demand for planned care services. Addressing this increased demand, while also working to sustainably reduce waiting times will require the health service to deliver more core activity through improved productivity and efficiencies, through ongoing reform and new enabling supports, and through targeted additional capacity.
Minister Carroll MacNeill said:
“In order to reduce waiting times we need to see more activity that results in patients receiving care, particularly those waiting the longest. As detailed in the Action Plan, this will be achieved through a combination of measures including service reforms and innovation; increased productivity and improved performance; investment in infrastructure and staffing; embracing digital solutions; and supplemented by targeted additional capacity via the NTPF.
“These initiatives are already having real-world impact, providing more timely access to care – our first surgical hub opened in Mount Carmel last February and over 3,700 procedures were carried out there by the end of the year. This resulted in a 74% reduction in patients waiting more than 12 months on relevant waiting lists compared to 2024. We can see how our growing infrastructure and expanding capacity results in people being treated faster and spending less time waiting. I am looking forward to seeing this success replicated with the five additional hubs due to open this year, while two further hubs in Sligo and Donegal are being progressed.
“Similarly, the HSE have implemented more efficient appointment scheduling through the new OPD Clinic Capacity Optimisation Programme or OPD Toolkit which operated across four hospitals last year and resulted in an estimated additional 2,700 new OPD appointments. That success will now be replicated across the health service and it’s projected that the HSE can deliver an additional 103,000 new OPD patient attendances this year.
“These are not just numbers, these are patients who are now being seen faster, getting earlier health interventions that will ultimately lead to better health outcomes.”
The WTAP sets out six overarching and interconnected targets, which will be achieved through the delivery of 36 actions under the themes of “Reforming Planned Care”, “Enabling Planned Care” and “Capacity Optimisation”.
The targets are:
- Sláintecare Wait Time Targets: 50% of patients to be waiting less than the Sláintecare wait time targets of 10 weeks for OPD appointments and 12 weeks for IPDC procedures; and 65% of patients to be waiting less than the Sláintecare wait time target of 12 weeks for GI Scopes.
- Weighted Average Wait Time: Reducing the weighted average wait time to < 5.5 months for OPD and IPDC and to < 3.5 months for GI Scopes.
- Patients waiting less than 12 months: 90% of patients to be waiting less than 12 months for first access to OPD services.
- OPD New to Return Ratio: To achieve an OPD new to return ratio of 1:2.0.
- Chronological Scheduling: To have 85% of routine elective appointments/procedures chronologically scheduled.
- Elective surgery same day of admission: 83% of inpatients to have their principal elective procedure conducted on day of admission.
CEO of the HSE Bernard Gloster said:
“The Waiting Time Action Plan is one which is totally focused on time waiting for people to access healthcare. While we have made improvements in recent years we are conscious that for many the wait time from referral to discharge is still too long. Building on the efforts of our staff in the past, the Minister has made available a variety of both reforms and resources which when combined in 2026 will take our improvements to a new level. Ease of comfort for the public followed by satisfaction for our staff are what will be the hallmarks of the achievements in the outcomes of this Plan. The HSE is totally committed to reducing time waiting for an ever increasing amount of people as a means to better health.”
The implementation of the WTAP 2026 will be overseen by the Waiting List Task Force, which is co-chaired by the Secretary General of the Department of Health and the CEO of the HSE. Effective oversight, through this governance structure, will help to reduce waiting times and bring us closer to having a public healthcare service in which everyone has timely access to high-quality scheduled care, where and when they need it.