The National Patient Treatment Register (NPTR) provides information online about waiting times for in-patient and day-case hospital procedures in public hospitals. The Register has been designed to give patients, families and GPs, information on waiting times to help with referral decisions. In other words, having an indication of how long you will be waiting for a day or surgical procedure may help you to plan for your care.
The Register only provides information on waiting times for public patients for procedures in public hospitals. Private hospitals are commercial bodies so information on waiting times for procedures in those institutions is only available directly from them. Similarly, waiting times for procedures for private patients in public hospitals is not on the Register. This is because these patients pay private health insurance that pays the cost of their care. In other words, care for private patients in public hospitals is not State funded. Public patients have to pay hospital charges, unless they are among the exempted groups. For example, medical card holders, people obtaining care for prescribed infectious diseases, etc. Further information on charges for public hospital services is available here.
The online information available about waiting times for public hospital services includes the average waiting time in months. No individual details regarding the names of patients, or their treatment is published online to the public. Only hospitals supplying information to the Register can access this information.
The Register consists of three separate sections. One for patients, one for family doctors (GPs), and one for hospitals. View each section in the links below.
At present, the Register provides information on waiting times for procedures in 44 public hospitals. In addition to assisting patients, families and GPs, the Register also gathers waiting list information to help hospitals; the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Department of Health plan healthcare services and delivery.
You are not obliged to have your information listed on the Patient Treatment Register. All information about you on the Register is treated in confidence, observing all data protection responsibilities. Read more about your data privacy rights here. If you wish to remove your information from the Register, you may do so.
In order to be placed as a public patient on a waiting list for in-patient and day-case public hospital services, you must be eligible for health services. All information about you on the Patient Treatment Register is treated in the strictest confidence in compliance with Data Protection legislation. You do not have to arrange to have your details included on the Patient Treatment Register.
As soon as you have been referred by your GP or consultant for in-patient public hospital services or day-care treatment, your details are automatically added to the Patient Treatment Register.
You may request your details are removed from the Patient Treatment Register.
There is no charge for registration.
Frequently Asked Questions about how the Patient Treatment Register works are available here (pdf). Questions about individual treatment should be addressed to your family doctor (GP).
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