Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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63. To ask the Minister for Health if he will address the increasingly long waiting times for operations at Cappagh Hospital in County Dublin, where waiting times of 18 months and longer are leading to some patients developing conditions arising out of the long-term use of pain medication, which is necessary given the waiting times; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3942/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The latest National Treatment Purchase Fund Waiting List data, published on 8 January last, shows that clear progress was made to reduce the numbers of patients on waiting lists by end December 2015. These figures continue to show the positive trend which was seen in November 2015, with improvements across all waiting list categories. This can be seen in Cappagh Hospital where no patient is waiting longer than 15 months for in-patient / day case treatment. This is within the maximum permissible waiting times that I set in January 2015 of 18 months by 30 June 2015 and 15 months by year end 2015.

In 2015, the HSE was provided with additional funding to maximise capacity across the public and voluntary hospitals or to fund outsourcing activity, so that patients’ needs could be met within the maximum allowable waiting times.

An additional allocation of €3.5 million was provided to Cappagh Hospital which enabled it to treat 537 more in-patients and 571 more day case patients in 2015 as compared with 2014. Since the start of 2015 ( with the enhanced 2015 allocation) the Hospital has increased its theatre use from between 2 and 3 Theatres per day in 2014 to between 3 and 4 Theatres per day in 2015