Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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799. To ask the Minister for Health the dermatology waiting lists nationally by hospital. [1659/19]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Improving access to hospital treatment is a key priority for government. Budget 2019 announced a funding increase from €55 million to €75 million to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) to provide treatment for patients.

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. In this regard, 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 information requested by the Deputy is set out in the following document and shows waiting list figures for December 2018 published by the NTPF. There are 755 patients on the Dermatology IPDC waiting list and of these, over 90% are waiting 9 months or less. There are 44,271 patients on the Dermatology Outpatient waiting list and of these, 64% are waiting 9 months or less.