Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 81: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her views on concerns that the average cost of a patient treated through the National Treatment Purchase Fund can be €400 more expensive in the private sector; her further views on claims that the NTPF has become a subsidy to the private sector; if she will provide a comparison on the number and cost of patients treated to date in 2006 and in 2005 by the NTPF with the number and cost of patients in the public sector; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41457/06]

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 93: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her plans to carry out a cost benefit analysis on the total 2006 spend by the National Treatment Purchase Fund, in view of the fact that the NTPF is paying substantially more for procedures carried out under its remit; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41426/06]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 134: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if she is satisfied that the taxpayer is receiving value for money from the National Treatment Purchase Fund scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41427/06]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 81, 93 and 134 together.

I am satisfied that the taxpayer is receiving excellent value for money from the National Treatment Purchase Fund. I am not aware of evidence that the cost of procedures arranged by the Fund in the private sector is "substantially more" than similar procedures in public hospitals.

It is difficult to make a direct comparison between the costs of procedures carried out under the auspices of the NTPF in the private sector and those carried out in the public sector. The NTPF basically has a procedure-based pricing system. The factors that are taken into account in agreeing prices with private hospitals include the market rate for the treatment, the cost base of the private hospital, the supply and demand for particular treatments and other pricing benchmarks including Casemix and some information from private insurers.

The Casemix system in use in public hospitals groups a range of patients having the same condition, who may have differing lengths of stay, severity and cost, into one Diagnostic Related Grouping, which is then split by cost per hospital to make it as accurate as possible. As an example, a simple tonsillectomy costs less than a tonsillectomy complicated by infection; a cataract may be a day procedure for some people while an overnight stay may be required by others.