Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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184. To ask the Minister for Health the success to date in the reduction of hospital waiting lists; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48443/17]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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185. To ask the Minister for Health if he has satisfied himself that he can reduce the waiting times for various hospital treatments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48444/17]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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187. To ask the Minister for Health the extent to which the National Treatment Purchase Fund is expected to deal with waiting lists for specific procedures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48446/17]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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188. To ask the Minister for Health the extent to which specific issues or deficiencies in the system which have resulted in backlogs and waiting lists in the public hospital system have been identified; his plans to resolve these issues; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48447/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 184, 185, 187 and 188 together.

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, the HSE has been implementing 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, over 29,000 patients have come off the Inpatient/Daycase Waiting List.

The NTPF has advised that to date 14,551 patients have been authorised for treatment in private hospitals under its Initiatives, 4,574 patients have accepted an offer of treatment in a private hospital and that 1,822 patients have received their procedure. The NTPF has also indicated 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.

Under the Oupatient Plan, since early February, almost 100,000 patients have come off the Outpatient Waiting List.

With regard to 2018, €50m in funding will be allocated to the NTPF for patient treatment and a further €10m to HSE to address waiting lists, including in the area of paediatric orthopaedics and scoliosis. The HSE and NTPF are working together to develop coherent and synergistic Waiting List Action Plans in 2018 for inpatient/daycase, outpatient and scoliosis, in order to continue the focus on long-waiting patients and overall waiting list numbers.