Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That of course is of no comfort to anyone who is waiting but it does mean that over the summer approximately 1,000 fewer people were waiting on trolleys than was the case for the summer of last year. If we consider waiting times, yes, there are far too many people on waiting lists but the most important point is how long they wait. People now wait on average fewer than six months for an operation or procedure that they need. There are 50,000 waiting more than three months, most people wait fewer than six months for an operation or procedure. For example, at the end of July 2017, there were almost 8,000 patients waiting more than three months for cataract procedures. That number is down to 4,000. We all get lots of queries about hips and knees. The number waiting more than three months in July 2017 was 2,400. That is down to 1,717. Similarly, there were 2,600 people waiting for tonsil procedures during the summer of 2017. That is down to 1,150. We can see that the investment in the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, in particular, is reducing waiting times considerably for patients waiting for an operation or procedure. We now plan to bring that approach to outpatients as well, making sure that money actually follows the patient.

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