Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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267. To ask the Minister for Health the amount of funding that has been awarded to public hospitals under the NTPF insourcing scheme to date in 2017; and the treatments delivered by hospital, number, types of procedures performed and prices paid for each procedure type, in tabular form. [47655/17]

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. Budget 2018 allocated additional funding in the region of €10m for the remainder of 2017 to fund patient treatment across a range of key specialties and procedures.

In order to reduce the numbers of long-waiting patients, during 2017 the HSE has been implementing its 2017 Inpatient/Daycase Waiting List Action Plan. Coupled with this, the NTPF has been delivering on Waiting List Initiative involving outsourcing of treatment to private hospitals as well as insourcing of treatment to public hospitals with capacity.

The NTPF has advised that to date that 3,716 patients have been authorised for treatment in public hospitals under the Plan’s insourcing initiatives, 1,415 offers of treatment have been accepted and 776 patients have been treated.

The NTPF has further advised that, as of 10 November, the amount spent on patient treatment in public hospitals is €861,321. The public hospitals currently offering treatment to patients through NTPF funding are as follows: Portlaoise Hospital, Roscommon University Hospital, St. James Hospital, Limerick University Hospital, Cappagh Orthopaedic Hospital, Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, Galway University Hospital, Cork University Hospital, Limerick University Hospital, Temple Street Hospital and Navan Hospital.

The NTPF have also advised that the number of procedures undertaken in public hospitals through NTPF funding in 2017 are as follows: