Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 156: To ask the Minister for Health and Children, further to Parliamentary Question No. 202 of 8 December 2009, if she will set out the qualifying criteria under the National Treatment Purchase Fund in view of the fact that NTPF customer services section claims that qualifying criteria are now set at six months and not three months. [47473/09]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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The primary remit of the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) is to facilitate treatment for those public patients waiting longest for surgery. At the end of November there were 141 patients waiting for longer than six months for surgery at Cappagh Hospital. The NTPF is working with the hospital to facilitate treatment for these patients quickly and thereafter to focus on patients waiting for less than six months. The NTPF will endeavour to facilitate the person whose case the Deputy has raised with treatment as soon as possible, while at the same time fulfilling its mandate in relation to persons waiting longest for treatment. It is open to the patient's general practitioner to contact the hospital about his case, if he is of the opinion that his condition merits more immediate attention.