Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for this Topical Issue matter. Unfortunately the Minister, Deputy Harris, cannot be present so he has asked me to reply. I will refer to one of the issues he raised in a little while.

Tallaght hospital is part of the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group, and the hospital is the principal provider of elective orthopaedics in the group. The hospital's spinal orthopaedic service provides emergency and elective access for a varying degree of acute and degenerative spinal conditions with a tertiary referral base. No spinal surgery is performed at Naas General Hospital.

The Minister acknowledges that waiting times are often unacceptably long and is 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 2018 announced a total allocation of €55 million for the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, for 2018. This allocation more than doubles the 2017 total allocation, which was €20 million.

Early planning for tackling waiting lists in 2018 is key. This funding will enable the provision of treatment for 18,000 inpatient/day case patients across a range of specialties, including spinal surgery, and procedures. The NTPF will work with both public and private hospitals in order to acquire treatment for these patients. Additional funding of €10 million in 2018 will be dedicated to addressing other waiting lists, including for children in need of scoliosis procedures.

Building on the momentum achieved in 2017, planning for 2018 is ongoing by the HSE and the NTPF. The organisations will work together to develop a coherent 2018 waiting list action plan. This approach is to ensure a seamless continuation of this year's work on addressing waiting lists into next year.

It is worth noting that 2017 has seen the HSE and NTPF make inroads into the inpatient-day case waiting lists and they are well on target to have removed 29,000 patients from our waiting lists by the end of October. To ensure the continuation of this strong focus, additional funding in the region of €10 million has been allocated for the remainder of 2017. This will fund patient treatment across a range of key specialties and procedures, such as those for hips, knees and cataracts, and also for ear, nose and throat and others.

Outpatient waiting lists remain a challenge, however. Over 92,000 patients have come off the waiting list so far this year but there remain almost 500,000 patients on the OPD waiting list nationally as of the end of last week. Outpatient waiting lists do not lend themselves to outsourcing initiatives because the full episode of care would have to be outsourced. The NTPF has advised, however, that it will seek to commission treatment on a see-and-treat basis, which could be used to assist with the management of OPD waiting times.

I assure the Deputy that the significant increase in funding to the NTPF reflects the ongoing commitment of this Government to reducing waiting times for the longest-waiting patients. Next year will see a continued focus on our longest-waiting patients and overall waiting list numbers, including access to spinal surgery at Tallaght Hospital.

On the Deputy's question on the number of people being referred by the surgeon in Tallaght Hospital, I do not have any information but I will certainly revert to the Deputy. I will ask the Minister whether he will consider specifically the case of the 500 on the surgeon's list, 170 of whom need surgery. I have no specifics on this for the Deputy at present.

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