Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Pearse Doherty for raising the issue. Specifically on the validation of waiting lists, I will check to make sure they are in accordance with the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, protocols but the NTPF, as a statutory agency, sets down strict protocols on the rules that should be followed to ensure accurate waiting lists. We have made significant investment in the area of scoliosis. In the last budget there was €10 million more of an investment in paediatric orthopaedic surgeries. This will see additional recruitment which is already under way in terms of an additional consultant post and importantly we have been working with the advocacy groups and the clinicians to put a new scoliosis co-design plan in place, which I expect to be published in the coming weeks.

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