Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Shortall for the question. As the Deputy knows, the programme for Government commits to reducing waiting times for procedures in hospitals and to increase funding for the National Treatment Purchase Fund to deliver on this commitment. In the budget and Estimates for 2018, funding for the NTPF to treat public patients was increased to €50 million.

The inpatient and day case action plan is a joint initiative between the HSE, the NTPF and my Department and sets the projected activity and impact that will be delivered in 2018 from within the allocated funding.  As outlined in the action plan, a projected 1.16 million inpatient and day case procedures will take place in 2018, with NTPF activity accounting for 20,000 procedures and HSE activity accounting for 1.14 million procedures. 

The NTPF procures capacity for each of the procedures identified in the action plan in both private hospitals or public hospitals. That is the difference between the NTPF now and in the past. We are spending resources also within the public health service. In 2018, the NTPF projects that 4,000 of its treatments will be delivered in the public health service.

No formal cost-benefit analysis was carried out on activity funded through the NTPF, nor indeed in respect of activity funded through the HSE.  However, the action plan strikes the appropriate balance between maximising the number of patients treated in both public and private capacity, as appropriate, and ensuring the best return for the taxpayer.

The overall number of patients waiting for an inpatient or day case procedure is projected to fall to below 70,000 by the end of the year, from a peak of 86,100 in July 2017. My ambition is to build on this progress and to further reduce waiting times for patients.

Parallel to improving access for patients this year, I am committed to reforming and investing in our public health system. However, we know that with the trolley situation, elective procedures are regularly cancelled in our public health service. I cannot expect those patients to wait while the capacity is being built in the public health service. I am, therefore, implementing a commitment in the programme for Government and in the confidence and supply agreement to utilise the NTPF to find capacity wherever it may be, both in the public sector and in the private sector. I want to spend all of the investment that we spend in health on our public health service, but I think it is widely acknowledged in this House that it will take time to build that capacity.

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