Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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78. To ask the Minister for Health if he will address the orthopaedic waiting list in University Hospital Waterford which is one of the highest in the country under the national treatment purchase fund as a priority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27649/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I acknowledge that waiting times are often unacceptably long and I am conscious of the burden that this places on patients and their families.

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 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 and Outpatient Services. These plans have now been finalised and their implementation has commenced. It is expected that the Inpatient / Daycase and Outpatient Plans will considerably reduce the number of patients waiting 15 months or more for inpatient and daycase treatment or for an outpatient appointment by the end of October. Under these Plans, since early February, over 14,200 patients have come off the Inpatient/Daycase Waiting List and nearly 49,000 patients have come off the Outpatient Waiting List.

In addition, last December I granted approval to the NTPF for the first tranche of funding in the region of €5m, for an initiative focused on those waiting longest for Daycase treatment with a view to ensuring that in excess of 2,000 patients waiting more than 18 months for a daycase procedure will have received an offer of an appointment for their procedure by the end of June.The NTPF has advised that to date over 2,500 patients files have been transferred to private hospitals under this initiative, 631 patients have accepted an offer of treatment in a private hospital and that 178 patients have received their procedure. In relation to the specific query concerning waiting times for orthopaedic services at University Hospital Waterford, I have asked the HSE to reply to you directly.