Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Health the current status of the National Treatment Purchase Fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4371/13]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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In July 2011 I announced changes to the remit of the NTPF, namely its role would be changed to support the mission of the Special Delivery Unit (SDU). The NTPF is now fully aligned with the SDU and is targeting waiting lists strategically and incentivising hospitals to manage their waiting times proactively. The NTPF capability is a core part of the SDU's performance-improvement role in holding public hospitals to account.

Statutory responsibility for the collection, collation and validation of data on waiting times and numbers of persons waiting for hospital treatment rests with the NTPF. The NTPF collects information on hospital in-patients and day case waiting times and has now taken over the reporting of outpatient waiting time data. The collation and analysis of outpatient waiting time data in a standardised format will reveal the distribution of long waiters across all hospitals. In the first instance, this will allow the SDU to target resources towards those patients who are waiting longest and ensure that they are seen and assessed. A maximum waiting time target has now been set of 12 months for a first-time outpatient appointment by 30 November 2013. In parallel with reducing the numbers of longest waiters, the SDU will also work with the HSE clinical programmes to reform the structure, organisation and delivery of outpatient services to ensure that the right patient is seen and assessed by the right health professional at the right time.