John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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228. To ask the Minister for Health the number of persons on outpatient waiting lists with a County Wicklow address; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3404/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) has advised that as of 30 December 2016 there were 9811 outpatients on the waiting list (with status of "Has Appointment" or "No Appointment") with a patient area of residence of Wicklow.

As the Deputy may be aware, in December 2016, I granted approval to the NTPF for the first tranche of funding, in the region of €5m, for an initiative focusing on daycase procedures. The NTPF anticipates that around 3,000 of the longest waiting daycase patients will be treated under this initiative with the aim that no patient would be waiting over 18 months for a daycase procedure by June 2017. It is expected that the outsourcing of treatment will commence shortly.

In December 2016, the Department wrote to the HSE requesting that it submit in January, a Waiting List Action Plan for 2017 in respect of both the Inpatient/Daycase Waiting List and the Outpatient Waiting List. The focus of these plans should be to ensure that no patient is waiting more than 15 months on either list by the end of October 2017. The HSE has been requested to develop the Inpatient/Daycase Waiting List Action Plan in conjunction with and supported by, the NTPF's proposal for utilisation of the remaining €10m of 2017 funding for patient treatment. I expect to make known the details of both plans in the coming weeks.