Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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198. To ask the Minister for Health the action that will be taken on the waiting time for MRI scans (details supplied) [39334/16]

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, the important issue for patients is how long they wait.

I recently approved the allocation of €0.5m of Contingency Funding from the Winter Initiative towards the purchase of CT and MRI capacity to support increased access for inpatient diagnostics with an associated benefit in terms of bed utilisation and length of stay.

Also in August, I asked the HSE to develop a Waiting List Action Plan for 2016 to reduce by year end the number of patients waiting over 18 months for an inpatient or daycase procedure. The HSE have indicated that since then more than 8,000 patients have been taken off from waiting lists nationally.

Regarding outpatient waiting lists in particular, the HSE recently launched the Strategy for the design of Integrated Outpatient Services 2016-2020. It seeks to improve waiting times for outpatient services by enhancing patient referral pathways and utilising technology to enable better planning.

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. Planning of these initiatives is currently being finalised. 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 also outpatient waiting times.