Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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414. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to use the National Treatment Purchase Fund for certain urology procedures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49312/17]

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, 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. Long-waiting Urology patients are a core group who have received treatment under the Inpatient/Daycase Initiative.

The NTPF has advised that to date 14,548 patients have been authorised for treatment in private hospitals under its initiatives, 5,431 patients have accepted an offer of treatment in a private hospital and that 2,011 patients have received their procedure. The NTPF has also indicated that 3,821 patients have been authorised for treatment in public hospitals under the Plan’s insourcing initiatives, 1,471 offers of treatment have been accepted and 818 patients have been treated.

The NTPF have advised that, as of 17 November, the total number of Urology procedures that have been undertaken through NTPF funding in both public and private hospitals is 305.