Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Question 278: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the number of medical procedures that were carried out abroad each year for the past five years under the patient treatment fund; if such services were unavailable at hospitals here; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4523/10]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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The National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) was established to tackle the issue of excessive waiting times for hospital treatment for public patients. The Fund has been very successful in fulfilling this remit and has arranged treatment for almost 175,000 patients to date. On average, public patients now wait 3 months for their operations, down from between two and five years before the NTPF was established. The NTPF does not normally send patients for treatment outside Ireland. This was done some years ago, when there was insufficient capacity in some specialties in the private system in Ireland. That capacity now exists here. The Fund arranges, where convenient, for patients living in Border counties to be treated in private facilities in Northern Ireland.