James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Question 337: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the annual budget made available to the National Treatment Purchase Fund since its inception; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29972/09]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The allocations to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) in each year since 2002 are as follows:- 2002: €5m 2003: €30m. 2004: €44m. 2005: €64m. 2006: €78m. 2007: €91.75m. 2008: €104.64m. 2009 €90.30m. To date almost 150,000 public patients had been facilitated by the NTPF with either in-patient procedures or out-patient appointments. A significant reduction in the number of people waiting for surgical procedures has been achieved over the years, from 7.4 per 1,000 population in 2002 to 4.3 per 1,000 in 2008. At May 2009 the median waiting time for both medical and surgical patients nationally was 2.7 months.

The Fund's activity targets for 2009 involve a total of 18,875 inpatients, 2,000 MRIs and 5,600 outpatient appointments. At my request, the NTPF, working with the HSE, will maintain a particular focus on the issue of people waiting for more than twelve months for treatment. I am pleased to say that, as a result of co-operation between the two organisations during 2008 on validation of waiting lists, the numbers of persons waiting over 12 months for treatment was reduced by 66%, from 4,637 to 1,576, between December 2007 and December 2008. The number of people waiting over 12 months at the end of May was further reduced to 1,167.

In each year to date, 95% to 96% of NTPF funding has been spent on direct patient care. The balance relates to the administration of the scheme with 2% to 2.5% of this relating to expenditure on wages and salaries.