John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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371. To ask the Minister for Health if an early appointment for a cataract operation will be arranged for a person (details supplied) at Waterford Regional Hospital; and the reason they were not called years ago as promised at the time of their assessment. [26591/18]

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 National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) to provide treatment for patients. The recently launched Inpatient/Day Case Action Plan outlines the combined impact of HSE and NTPF activity in 2018 to reduce the number of patients waiting for treatment to below 70,000 in 2018. This plan marks a very important milestone in delivering on this commitment.

The Action Plan places a particular focus on cataract surgery. The plan commits to offering treatment to all cataract patients who are clinically suitable for outsourcing and who have been waiting more than 9 months for treatment.

In relation to your particular query, as this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly.