Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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1137. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to introduce punitive measures on health facilities which are not meeting waiting list reduction targets; the way in which such financial measures will not impact on front-line services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32235/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Improving waiting lists for scheduled care is a key priority for Government. In January, taking into account current pressures on acute hospital services, the Minister for Health put in place a maximum permissible waiting time for in-patient and day case treatment and outpatient appointments of 18 months by 30 June and 15 months by year end. Additional funding of €51m has been provided this year to ensure that these maximum waiting times are achieved.

In June, the HSE reported a performance against the 18 month maximum waiting time of 99.6% for IP/DC and 92% for OPD. In order to maintain progress and to make further improvements to achieve a 15 month maximum waiting time by end December, the HSE has directed that hospitals which breached the 18 month maximum waiting time in August are to be fined. The fines will be calculated on the basis of the activity based funding cost of each procedure and are being imposed from 1 September.

The HSE, in conjunction with Hospital Groups is focused on delivering these targets through maximising use of internal capacity within and across Hospital Groups in the first instance. Hospitals have been requested to produce clearance plans in this regard. The HSE has already put in place specific measures to address waiting lists more efficiently in collaboration with acute hospitals, the Special Delivery Unit and the National Treatment Purchase Fund. These include observation of the National Waiting List Protocol (2014), adherence to relevant HSE National Clinical Programme guidelines and prioritising day-of-surgery admission where clinically appropriate.