Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 July 2017
742. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health if he will provide a report on the allocation of the €15 million in 2017 to fund the National Treatment Purchase Fund to urgently address waiting lists for those waiting longest; the amount of this funding which has now been spent; and the number of persons that will receive scheduled treatment as a result of this expenditure. [34087/17]
View answerI acknowledge that waiting times are often unacceptably long and I am conscious of the burden that this places on patients and their families.
Reducing waiting times for the longest waiting patients is one of this Government's key priorities. Consequently, Budget 2017 allocated €20 million to the NTPF, rising to €55 million in 2018.
In order to reduce the numbers of long-waiting patients, I asked the HSE to develop Waiting List Action Plans for 2017 in the areas of Inpatient/Daycase, Scoliosis and Outpatient Services. These plans have been published and their implementation is ongoing. The Inpatient / Daycase and Outpatient Plans focus on reducing the number of patients waiting 15 months or more for inpatient and daycase treatment or for an outpatient appointment by the end of October. The Scoliosis Action Plan aims to ensure that no patient who requires scoliosis surgery will be waiting more than four months for surgery by the end of 2017. Under these Plans, since early February, over 15,800 patients have come off the Inpatient/Daycase Waiting List and nearly 57,000 patients have come off the Outpatient Waiting List.
In addition, the NTPF is currently rolling out its Daycase Waiting List Initiative focused on those waiting longest for daycase treatment, with a view to ensuring that in excess of 2,000 patients waiting more than 18 months for a daycase procedure will have received an offer of an appointment for their procedure by the end of June. The NTPF has advised that to date nearly 3000 patients files have been transferred to private hospitals under this Initiative, close to 900 patients have accepted an offer of treatment in a private hospital and around 400 patients have received their procedure.
Embedded in all NTPF Initiatives are procedures to report on the type, nature and cost of treatments commissioned, including controls to ensure quality patient treatment, value for money and efficient processes. My Department has implemented a robust monitoring framework in this regard.
The NTPF submit regular reports to the Department of Health on the number of patients treated, referring hospitals, treating hospitals, and treatment specialty. It may not be possible to make specific information on costs in relation to individual private hospitals available due to its commercial sensitivity however, the NTPF provide to the Department financial reports regarding the waiting list initiatives.
