Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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480. To ask the Minister for Health the number of persons on public hospital waiting lists for surgery (details supplied). [50934/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Improving access to hospital treatment is a key priority for government. This year €55 million was allocated to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) to provide treatment for patients. This has been increased to a total of €75 million for 2019 and as a result of this additional funding, my Department is working closely with the NTPF and the HSE to finalise a Scheduled Care Access Plan for inpatients/day case and outpatients for 2019.

Waiting list figures are published by the NTPF on their website www.ntpf.ie. Figures for October 2018 show that the number of patients waiting for an Inpatient or Daycase procedures has fallen to 72,000 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 2019, the NTPF and the HSE will continue to work closely with Hospital Groups, inviting proposals to improve access for patients waiting for either Inpatient/Daycase or Outpatient procedures.

The data sought by the Deputy is contained in the attached document at the link.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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481. To ask the Minister for Health the number of persons on public hospital waiting lists (details supplied). [50935/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Improving access to hospital treatment is a key priority for government. This year €55 million was allocated to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) to provide treatment for patients. This has been increased to a total of €75 million for 2019 and as a result of this additional funding, my Department is working closely with the NTPF and the HSE to finalise a Scheduled Care Access Plan for inpatients/day case and outpatients for 2019.

I recently met with the CEOs of all hospital groups and requested that they develop innovative proposals to address their outpatient lists in 2019.

In 2019, the NTPF and the HSE will continue to work closely with Hospital Groups, inviting proposals to improve access for patients waiting for either Inpatient/Daycase or Outpatient procedures.

The data sought by the Deputy is contained in the attached document at the link.