Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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405. To ask the Minister for Health the number of patients in each relevant hospital who have been waiting more than two years for an outpatient appointment; and the number of patients in each who have been waiting more than three years for an outpatient appointment, in tabular form. [50662/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Improving access to hospital treatment is a key priority for government. Each year, 3.3 million patients attend Hospital Outpatient clinics for appointments. While the total numbers on the outpatient waiting list continues to grow, a targeted approach by the HSE in late 2017 and into 2018 has impacted on the level of growth. From January to September 2018, the rate of growth of the outpatient waiting list was a quarter of what it was in the same period in 2017.

This year €55 million was allocated to the 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 will continue to work closely with Hospital Groups, inviting proposals to facilitate the trialling of funded interventions, including weekend and out of hours clinics, to tackle Outpatient Waiting lists. This year has seen the NTPF approve almost 12,700 additional first-time outpatient appointments and this is projected to increase to 40,000 appointments next year. In addition, validation will play a key in ensuring the accuracy of the outpatient waiting list, and it is envisioned that 30,000 patients will be removed from the outpatient waiting list through the validation consultation process in 2019.

The data sought by the Deputy is contained at the following link.