Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 229: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the target guidelines for maximum waiting times of the National Health Strategy; and when she last received a report from the Health Service Executive on performance against these targets. [19527/06]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The Health Strategy set as a target that no public patient should wait longer than three months for in-patient treatment in hospital following referral from an out-patient department. Responsibility for the collection and reporting of data on waiting times now rests with the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF). It has developed the Patient Treatment Register (PTR), which provides, for the first time, verified information on actual patients on public in-patient and day-case waiting lists. The latest figures from the PTR show that for the 20 most common surgical procedures, 85% of patients are waiting less than 6 months for treatment.

Nineteen hospitals are currently included in the PTR. It is intended to complete the roll-out of the PTR to all acute hospitals by the end of this year. The NTPF advises anyone waiting more than three months for an operation to contact it as, in most instances, treatment can be arranged for them.