Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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1073. To ask the Minister for Health the way in which he will ensure that the National Treatment Purchase Fund avoids double paying public hospitals for work they should be doing using their HSE funding when purchasing treatment for persons on waiting lists under the insourcing initiative; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26795/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Inpatient/Daycase Waiting List Action Plan has been developed by the HSE, in conjunction with the NTPF, and focuses on reducing the number of patients who will be waiting 15 months or more for inpatient / daycase treatment by the end of October 2017. Under this Plan, since early February, over 14,200 patients have come off the Inpatient/Daycase Waiting List. The IPDC Waiting List Action Plan will be delivered through a combination of normal hospital NSP-funded activity, as well as insourcing and outsourcing initiatives utilising the €15m of Budget 2017.

A robust monitoring framework for the implementation of this Plan has been established. One of the aims of this reporting mechanism is to ensure that the NTPF principles and criteria for insourcing are adhered to, and, in particular, that any work funded through insourcing is additional to work funded through the National Service Plan and that the amount charged for procedures only reflects the additional costs incurred in providing the treatment.

A number of specific measures are being put in place to ensure that additional activity is being delivered under the Plan, these include the implementation of Service Level Agreements between the NTPF and individual public hospitals to support the treatment and management of patients. The HSE and the NTPF will monitor and oversee these Service Level Agreements to ensure appropriate escalation steps are taken as required if the SLAs are not adhered to. Adherence to the SLAs will ensure the application of NTPF principles and criteria for insourcing,

The HSE will also monitor Inpatient and Daycase normal elective work volumes by Hospital and focus on the reduction of longest waiters and ensure activity volumes remain in line with those agreed through the National Service Plan and the HSE inpatient/daycase Waiting List Action Plan.