Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Question 124: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if her attention has been drawn to the fact that the waiting time for a routine outpatient appointment in Cork University Hospital is 18 to 24 months, that due to the suffering and anxiety of this delay the National Treatment Purchase Fund allocated 100 outpatient orthopaedic referrals for 2008 which have already been filled and that a patient (details supplied) in County Cork who is awaiting a consultant appointment is in severe pain and needs treatment before an MRI scan can be undertaken; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17144/08]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The management of waiting lists generally is a matter for the Health Service Executive (HSE) in accordance with its operational responsibility for the management and delivery of health and personal social services. Therefore, the HSE is the appropriate body to consider the matter raised by the Deputy. Accordingly, my Department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the HSE to arrange to have a reply issued direct to the Deputy concerning the case of the person in question.

I am aware that the National Treatment Purchase Fund is currently working closely with Cork University Hospital in order to facilitate treatment for 157 people who are on surgical in-patient waiting lists for more than 12 months.