John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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15. To ask the Minister for Health the reason for the 137% increase in inpatient and day case waiting lists in Temple Street Children’s Hospital since April 2014, significantly ahead of the national average increase of 57%. [38038/16]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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This Government is committed to improving waiting times for patients. While recognising that demand for acute hospital services has increased this year with a 4% increase in inpatient and day case activity to end October compared with the same period last year, the important issue for patients is how long they wait.

Under the HSE Service Plan 2016 targets, 95% of people should be waiting less than 15 months for their inpatient or daycase appointment. The latest NTPF inpatient/daycase waiting list figures show that 99% of patients at Temple Street are waiting less than 15 months for their inpatient/daycase appointment and 94% of patients are waiting less than 12 months.

There are a number of factors contributing to the hospital's waiting list including the appointment of additional consultants resulting in additional demand on theatre and an increase in the number of referrals from across the country. There has been a 6.2% increase in in-patient activity in Temple Street over the last two years. The HSE has advised that the waiting list is proactively managed to ensure that patients who clinically require admission are prioritised and then patients are admitted in chronological order.

Budget 2017 provides for the treatment of our longest-waiting patients. €20m is being allocated to the NTPF in 2017, rising to €55m in 2018. I met the Chair and CEO of the NTPF last Tuesday and I have granted approval to their proposal which outlines the use of a first tranche of funding, in the region of €5m, for an initiative focusing on daycase procedures. The NTPF and HSE are currently engaging regarding a proposal for the use of the remaining funding for patient treatment in 2017. This gradual, stepped approach will enable the NTPF to build new operational capacity towards its 2018 allocation.

In addition, it is intended that the NTPF's proposal will free up capacity in the public hospital system to provide treatment to those patients awaiting inpatient treatment, whose requirements are more complex and thus more suited to the public hospital system.

I will shortly be asking the HSE to develop a Waiting List Action Plan for 2017 working collaboratively with the NTPF to address inpatient, daycase and outpatient waiting times, including at Temple Street Children's Hospital.