Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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266. To ask the Minister for Health when a person (details supplied) in County Clare will have cataract surgery on both eyes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38326/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Under the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive (HSE) is required to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services. Section 6 of the HSE Governance Act 2013 bars the Minister for Health from directing the HSE to provide a treatment or a personal service to any individual or to confer eligibility on any individual.

The National Waiting List Management Policy, a standardised approach to managing scheduled care treatment for in-patient, day case and planned procedures, since January 2014, has been developed to ensure that all administrative, managerial and clinical staff follow an agreed national minimum standard for the management and administration of waiting lists for scheduled care. This policy, which has been adopted by the HSE, sets out the processes that hospitals are to implement to manage waiting lists.

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

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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267. To ask the Minister for Health the number of persons awaiting an initial urology consultation by county; the waiting times for same by county; if he will engage with the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, to address waiting times; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38329/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The data requested by the Deputy are provided in the excel spreadsheets in the following link.

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 Inpatient/Day Case Action Plan 2018 which was published in April outlines the combined impact of HSE and NTPF activity in 2018 to reduce the number of patients waiting for treatment. NTPF authorisations are made in respect of the longest waiting patients first.

Key to the delivery of the Action Plan is the ongoing collaboration between the NTPF and the HSE and individual hospitals to identify solutions for long waiting patients. The NTPF will provide funding to the solutions proposed if appropriate. To date this year, the NTPF has approved eight Urology submissions which has resulted in the treatment of over 1,400 patients.

Overall, the Inpatient/Daycase waiting list for Urology has reduced by over 1,100 patients since August 2017 with improvements across the 6-24 month timebands.

Nationally, the Outpatient Waiting List remains a significant challenge to be addressed in 2018. The Outpatient Waiting List for Urology has seen an increase of over 1,700 patients since August 2017.

My Department, in consultation with the HSE and the NTPF, is in the process of finalising an Outpatient Action Plan for the remainder of 2018 which I hope to publish soon. The Plan will include the trialling of a number of NTPF funded interventions, including weekend and out of hours clinics.