Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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132. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 464 of 16 October 2018, when a reply will issue from the HSE. [46176/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Reducing waiting time for patients for hospital operations and procedures is a key priority for the Government. This year has seen ongoing improvements with the number of patients waiting for inpatient and daycase procedures (IPDC), now at 72,700 from the peak of 86,100 in July 2017. This represents a 16% reduction in the overall number of patients waiting for an inpatient or day case procedure.

In addition, the waiting list figures show that since July 2017, the number of patients waiting for a hip/knee replacement has reduced from 3,500 to 2,800 at the end of September 2018 equating to a reduction of 21% while the number of patients waiting over 9 months has more than halved from 1,019 to 444 in the same period.

In terms of a response from the HSE, the HSE has 15 working days to provide a written answer to the Deputy. I have raised the issue with the HSE who are preparing a response for the Deputy.