Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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468. To ask the Minister for Health when a hip operation will be facilitated in the case of a person (details supplied); if the NTPF can be utilised in the person's case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6014/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Under the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive (HSE) is required to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services. Section 6 of the HSE Governance Act 2013 bars the Minister for Health from directing the HSE to provide a treatment or a personal service to any individual or to confer eligibility on any individual.

Reducing waiting times for the longest waiting patients is one of the Government's key priorities. For this reason, €20 million was allocated to the NTPF in the 2017 Budget, rising to €55 million in 2018.

In December 2016, I granted approval to the NTPF for the first tranche of funding in the region of €5 million, for an initiative focusing on day case procedures. It is estimated that around 3,000 day cases will be managed through this process with the aim of ensuring that no patient will be waiting more than 18 months for treatment by 30 June 2017. Tender documentation was issued at the end of January and it is expected that the outsourcing of treatment will commence shortly.

It is expected that the NTPF initiative 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.

In addition, the HSE is currently developing a 2017 Waiting List Action Plan for inpatient/day-case procedures that no patient is waiting more than 15 months by the end of October. The Plan is being developed in conjunction with the NTPF's proposal for utilisation of its remaining €10 million funding for patient treatment in 2017. A similar plan is being developed for outpatient appointments. I expect to make known the details of both plans in the coming weeks.

In relation to the specific case raised, regarding access to treatment under the NTPF imitative, I have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly.