Tim O'Malley (Limerick East, Progressive Democrats)

The NTPF reported in May 2004 that waiting times have reduced significantly, with 37% of patients waiting between three and six months and 43% waiting between six and 12 months for surgery. Therefore, 80% of patients wait less than one year for surgical treatment. This represents a major reduction in the time patients must wait.

The fund has substantial capacity to treat patients and will continue to focus on reducing waiting times even further. The fund's target is to treat more than 12,000 this year — it has the capacity to treat a minimum of 1,000 patients per month. This will allow the fund to make further significant progress in reducing the average waiting times for surgical procedures. Since it commenced operations, the fund has been successful in locating additional capacity and arranging treatments for more than 19,000 public patients up to the end of September 2004.

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