Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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155. To ask the Minister for Health the number of persons waiting for cataract operations in the South/South West hospital group sites; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39267/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Reducing waiting times for Cataract surgery remains a top priority in 2018. In the Inpatient Day Case Action Plan, launched in April, 25% (5,000 out of 20,000) of the planned National Treatment Purchase Fund procedures were allocated for cataract patients.

Under the Action Plan, the NTPF commits to offer treatment to all clinically suitable patients waiting more than 9 months for a cataract procedure.

The impact of the Action Plan can be seen in the improvements to the Waiting Lists for Cataracts which have seen a reduction of over 3,100 over the past 13 months. August figures for cataracts show that there are now 6,868 on the waiting list, compared to over 10,000 in July 2017. The number of patients waiting over 9 months for a cataract procedure has gone from over 4,300 in July 2017 to 1,078 in August 2018, with 64% of patients waiting 3 months or less.

While the Department does not routinely collect data at procedure level by group, waiting list figures from the NTPF indicate that since July 2017, the numbers on the Inpatient/Daycase list for ophthalmology in the SSW hospital group has fallen from 3,509 to 2,826 at the end of August 2018. Cataracts would make up a significant proportion of the ophthalmology waiting lists. The percentage of ophthalmology patients on the IPDC list waiting 9 months or more at the end of August 2018 is 27%.

I will ask the NTPF to provide information on the number of cataracts patients in SSW to the end of August and I will provide this information to the Deputy directly.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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156. To ask the Minister for Health the number of persons waiting for orthopaedic operations in the South/South West hospital group sites; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39268/18]

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 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.

As of the end of August 2018, the orthopaedic waiting list for the south-southwest hospital group stood at 1,001 patients, representing a reduction of 74 patients (7%) when compared to the numbers waiting at August 2017.

The majority of patients (439) are listed for South Infirmary Cork, a further 285 patients are awaiting treatment at Lourdes Orthopaedic Hospital Kilcreene. The remaining patients are waiting at Cork University Hospital (16), University Hospital Kerry (124) and University Hospital Waterford (137).

It is important to note that as of the end of August 86% of all orthopaedic patients of the South-Southwest Hospital group were waiting less than 9 months for treatment, while only 9% are waiting more than 1 year.