Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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699. To ask the Minister for Health the number of persons waiting for cataract procedures on national public waiting lists for 2017 and 2018; the average waiting time to undergo required cataract procedures; his plans to further reduce the waiting times in this area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1077/19]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Improving access to hospital treatment is a key priority for Government.

It is acknowledged that cataract surgery is among the most common surgical procedures carried out in the ophthalmology specialty. It was in this knowledge that when proposals for the joint HSE-National Treatment Purchase Fund Inpatient and Day Case Action Plan were under development last year, I sought a particular focus on reducing waiting times for a number of high volume specialties including cataracts. The Action Plan, allocated a quarter (5,000 out of 20,000) of the planned NTPF procedures to cataract treatments.

Waiting list figures for December 2018, published last week by the NTPF show that considerable improvements have been made to the number of patients waiting for an Inpatient or Day case procedure which have fallen to 70,204 from 81,500 in December 2017. This represents a reduction of over 14% in the overall number of patients waiting for a procedure.

In terms of the number of people waiting for cataract treatment in 2017 and 2018 and the average waiting times, the NTPF advise that at the end of 2017 there were 8,027 people waiting for a cataract procedure, with an average waiting time of 195 days, while at the end of 2018 there were 6,440 people waiting for a cataract procedure, with an average waiting time of 131 days. This represents a decrease in numbers waiting of 20% and a reduction in average waiting time of 33%.

The action plan also recommended that the HSE and NTPF identify sustainable initiatives to improve waiting times. In this context, a dedicated centre for cataract surgery in Nenagh opened last July, and at full capacity will be capable of delivering up to 2,000 procedures annually. The centre is ideally located to enable the UL hospital group, in collaboration with the HSE and NTPF, to maximise the use of the Centre through collaboration with hospital groups so that patients from surrounding regions can be referred to the centre for their treatment.

My Department is working closely with the NTPF and the HSE to finalise a scheduled care access plan for inpatients/daycase and outpatients for 2019. In this regard, the NTPF and HSE will continue to work closely with hospital groups, inviting proposals to improve access for patients waiting for hospital procedures.