Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 July 2022
321. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the funding drawn down by the National Treatment Purchase Fund in each of the years 2017 to 2021 and to date in 2022, in tabular form; the amount of funding in each year spent on procuring services from private healthcare providers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36887/22]
View answerImproving access to Scheduled Care and reducing waiting time for patients for hospital operations and procedures is a key priority for Government. The year-on-year increases to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) since Budget 2017 reflect this priority and Budget 2022 provided a total allocation to the NTPF of €150 million.
The NTPF procures capacity for high-volume procedures in order to positively impact waiting time for patients. Such procedures may be procured in both private hospitals (outsourcing), or public hospitals (insourcing). In order to ensure competitive pricing as part of their outsourcing programme, the NTPF works with private hospitals from a panel agreement and engages in procurement processes through e-tender. In relation to insourcing, a public hospital may have some spare capacity but require further funding in order to utilise it. Such public hospitals may make a proposal to the NTPF, whereby the NTPF pay a fixed price per procedure performed. The amount paid by the NTPF meets the extra costs incurred by the public hospital in performing the procedures.
The information requested by the Deputy is outlined in the attached document.
|
Area |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
Jan - May 2022 |
|
Funding Drawn Down by the NTPF (Oireachtas Grant) |
22,600,000 |
55,022,000 |
75,000,000 |
80,000,000 |
110,000,000 |
15,000,000 |
|
Procuring services from private healthcare providers |
9,948,651 |
31,420,173 |
29,204,118 |
22,957,536 |
44,913,597 |
20,470,783 |
The information provided in relation to 2017-2020 is from audited NTPF Annual Financial Statements. I would inform the Deputy that the NTPF has advised that the 2021 financial data is from the unaudited 2021 Annual Financial Statements and that the 2022 figures are from the May Management Accounts and maybe subject to change as further reports are received from hospitals.
