Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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1272. To ask the Minister for Health the waiting times for gallbladder removal surgery nationally and in Wexford general hospital and University Hospital Waterford in each of the years 2010 to 2016 and the date in 2017, in tabular form. [38942/17]

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, Scoliosis and Outpatient Services. The Inpatient/Daycase Action Plan is being delivered through a combination of normal hospital activity, as well as insourcing and outsourcing initiatives utilising NTPF funding. Under the Inpatient/Daycase Plan, since early February, almost 22,000 patients have come off the Inpatient/Daycase Waiting List.

The NTPF has advised that to date 5,295 patients have been authorised for treatment in private hospitals under its Day Case Initiative, 2,065 patients have accepted an offer of treatment in a private hospital and that 954 patients have received their procedure. The NTPF has also indicated that 2,496 patients have been authorised for treatment in public hospitals under the plan’s insourcing initiatives, 558 offers of treatment have been accepted and 104 patients have been treated.

Under the Oupatient Plan, since early February, almost 79,000 patients have come off the Outpatient Waiting List.

In response to the particular query raised, as this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to you directly.