Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 34: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if the National Treatment Purchase Fund limits the number of procedures it undertakes on behalf of individual hospitals; if so, the reason for same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6984/10]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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The primary objective of the National Treatment Purchase Fund is to secure treatment for public patients who have been waiting longest for treatment. The Fund receives an annual financial allocation within which it must operate. In the current year this amounts to €90.092m. The volume and overall mix of activity to be undertaken each year is agreed between the Fund and my Department, having regard to overall service priorities and the amount of the financial allocation for the year.

A number of factors influence the volumes of patients accepted from individual public hospitals' waiting lists. These include the Fund's overall budget and the level of activity agreed under its annual service plan, the nature and location of cases involving persons waiting longest for treatment, the capacity for certain types of surgery in the private system, the complexity and cost of any individual case and also how waiting lists are managed in each public hospital. The position in relation to the numbers from any particular hospital who can be afforded treatment is kept under review in the course of the year, having regard to the objective of arranging treatment, within budget, for as many as possible of those waiting longest for treatment.

The NTPF is responsible for seeking the best value for money possible for taxpayers. Accordingly, it negotiates with individual service providers for different types of treatment. Where a provider's price is deemed unreasonable, the Fund will not purchase that treatment from the provider. As a result of this policy, as well as the increase in private acute capacity in the state, the NTPF has been able to negotiate better prices, in particular for larger volume treatments.