Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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211. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 477 of 3 February 2015, and in view of the maximum time obligation of eight months for adult patients requiring admission, as set out by the National Treatment Purchase Fund, and the fact that a person (details supplied) in County Clare has been classified as an urgent clinical priority and that the person was first admitted to the system on 12 May 2014, when the person may expect an appointment for the required surgery; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9746/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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As I mentioned in my previous response, the scheduling of appointments for individual patients is a matter for the hospital to which the patient has been referred taking into account his or her clinical need. Should a patient's general practitioner consider that the patient's condition warrants an earlier appointment, he or she would be in the best position to take the matter up with the consultant and hospital involved.

I wish to assure the Deputy that the Government is committed to reducing numbers on waiting lists for scheduled care, with particular focus on those waiting in excess of 18 months. I understand, on the basis of the response that your received from the HSE on 11th February, that the individual concerned was placed on the waiting list in the Mater Hospital on 12 May 2014, has been given a clinical priority as urgent but that, unfortunately, at this time, it is not possible to give him an admission date.

I also note that the Mater has advised that every effort will be made to facilitate his procedure in the future and that it is working with the Special Delivery Unit to achieve reduced waiting times for all its patients.