Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Improving waiting times for hospital procedures is a key commitment in the Programme for Government and in 2018 €50 million was allocated to the NTPF to provide treatment for patients.

The recently launched Inpatient/Day Case Action Plan outlines the combined impact of HSE and National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) activity in 2018. The Action Plan places a particular focus on cataract surgery and includes a commitment that the NTPF will provide 5,000 cataract procedures to patients. In addition, the NTPF commits to offer treatment to all clinically suitable patients waiting more than 9 months for a cataract procedure.

Cork University Hospital (CUH) advise that patients requiring Inpatient/Daycase ophthalmology treatment are referred to South Infirmary Hospital Cork and held on their waiting list. The active Inpatient / Daycase waiting list for South Infirmary Hospital Cork shows that at the end of April 2018 there were 929 patients on the ophthalmology waiting list and of these, 86% of patients are waiting 8 months or less.

The NTPF will deliver 20,000 Inpatient Day Case treatments across a range of specialties through both outsourcing and HSE insourcing. I would encourage individual hospitals to engage with the NTPF to identify potential outsourcing and insourcing initiatives to be put in place over the course of the year.