Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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33. To ask the Minister for Health the reason the number of persons waiting over a year for their consultation in Mayo University Hospital has almost doubled in the year to March 2017 [20777/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Reducing waiting times for the longest waiting patients is one of this Government's key priorities. Consequently, Budget 2017 allocated €20 million to the NTPF, rising to €55 million in 2018.

In December 2016, I granted approval to the NTPF to dedicate €5m to a daycase waiting list initiative with the aim of ensuring that no patient will be waiting more than 18 months for a daycase procedure by 30 June 2017. In excess of 2,000 daycases will be managed through this process and patients are already receiving appointments. The main areas of focus of the daycase procedures will be those list with large numbers of long waiters including: ENT, Ophthalmology, General Surgery, Dental, Urology and Vascular Surgery.

In order to reduce the numbers of long-waiting patients, I asked the HSE to develop Waiting List Action Plans for 2017 in the areas of Inpatient/Daycase, Scoliosis and Outpatient Services. These plans have now been finalised and will be communicated shortly.