Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on this issue. The Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, has committed to tackling long waiting lists. It is acknowledged that cataract surgery is among the most common surgical procedures carried out in the ophthalmology speciality. It was with this knowledge, when proposals for the joint HSE-National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, inpatient and day case action plan were under development earlier this year, that the Minister sought a particular focus on waiting times for a number of high volume specialties, including cataract surgery. The action plan allocated one quarter or 5,000 of the 20,000 planned NTPF procedures to cataract treatments. Furthermore, under the action plan, the NTPF commits to offer treatment to all clinically suitable patients who have been waiting more than nine months for a cataract procedure. By the end of August over 4,100 patients had received cataract treatment through NTPF funding. This represents 83% of the target of 5,000 set in the action plan.

The impact of the action plan can be seen in the improvements to waiting lists for cataract procedures which have seen a reduction of over 3,100 in the past 13 months. The August 2018 figures show that there are 6,868 people on the waiting list for cataract procedures compared to over 10,000 in July 2017. However, the reduction in waiting list numbers does not fully reflect the progress made. In January 2018 as many as 8,027 patients were awaiting cataract surgery.Between January and August, 5,982 patients were added to the waiting list, therefore numbers have more than halved from 14,000 to 6,900 in the eight-month period. In addition, the number of patients waiting longer than nine months for a cataract procedure has gone from over 4,300 in July 2017 to 1,078 in August 2018, with 64% of patients waiting three months or less. Between January and August, the NTPF issued almost 7,300 offers of treatment to patients awaiting cataract surgery who were clinically suitable for outsourcing.

The action plan also recommends that the HSE and the NTPF identify sustainable initiatives to improve waiting times. A dedicated cataract theatre in Nenagh hospital opened in July. Since the service commenced in July, 53 patients have been treated and it is expected that more than 200 cataract procedures will be undertaken by the end of the year. Yesterday's budget announced an allocation to the NTPF of €75 million in 2019 from which the NTPF plans to fund 25,000 inpatient day case treatments. Under these plans, I would expect that the number of cataract procedures to be funded in 2019 will be similar to 2018 levels.