Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The NTPF is working very well. We funded it to provide treatment for any patient waiting more than six months for up to 15 high-volume procedures. That will increase to 20 high-volume procedures. I am pleased to note that as of the end of last month, 80% of patients waiting for more than six months for these procedures have been authorised for NTPF treatment. It is going very well.

How are the bottlenecks in patient flow being identified? Comprehensive work was done last year and this year across the system. It involved going patient pathway by patient pathway and hospital by hospital. It identified bottlenecks at granular level. Sometimes it was additional capacity such as theatres or MRI machines, while at other times it came down to decisions that three more nurses were needed here, two theatre nurses were needed there and a respiratory clinician was needed over there. It is being done at a granular level to do what the Deputy alluded to, namely, identifying the bottlenecks and investing in tackling them.

See this speech in context