Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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295. To ask the Minister for Health the number of ENT surgeries cancelled for children nationally by hospital in each of the years 2016 to 2018, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3721/19]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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296. To ask the Minister for Health the number of children on ENT surgery waiting lists nationally by hospital in each of the years 2016 to 2018, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3722/19]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 295 and 296 together.

Reducing waiting times for hospital appointments and procedures is a key commitment of Government. The last two years have seen ongoing improvements in the number of children waiting for ENT surgeries, with a reduction of 52% in the number of children waiting for an inpatient or daycase procedure in the last two years.

The 2019 Scheduled Care Access Plan is currently being finalised by my Department and will set out HSE activity levels to reduce waiting lists across specialties and improve access. The Access Plan will also set out activity levels for the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) who, following an increase in funding in Budget 2019 to €75 million, will supply additionality to HSE activity by arranging both insourced and outsourced appointments and treatments to reduce waiting times experienced by patients.

The Access Plan is being developed to ensure an appropriate balance between high volume activities and offering treatment to complex long waiting patients. The NTPF will do this by inviting public hospitals to seek solutions for very long waiters either in the private sector or through insourcing. The NTPF will provide funding to the solutions proposed if appropriate.

A breakdown of the IPDC paediatric ENT waiting list for December 2016, December 2017, and December 2018 is provided for the Deputy. In relation to the number of procedures cancelled, as this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to provide the Deputy with a direct response.

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Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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297. To ask the Minister for Health the length of time each person has been on the waiting list for cataract surgery nationally by hospital; the length of time they have been waiting and by month in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3723/19]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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298. To ask the Minister for Health the medically advised waiting time for cataract surgeries compared to the waiting times for cataract surgeries nationally by hospital in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3724/19]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 297 and 298 together.

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.

In relation to the particular query raised, the HSE National Clinical Programme for Ophthalmology has advised that there is no specific medically advised waiting time for cataract surgery. A patient with cataract is advised to have it removed when it significantly impacts on their activities of daily living and this can obviously vary from patient to patient. Once the patient's vision drops to below 6/12 in the better eye, patients are advised to have their cataract removed if they wish to continue driving. They are not in a position to continue driving if their vision is below this level.

The following table of figures provided by the NTPF, shows the numbers waiting by hospital nationally by time band for cataract surgery at 20 December 2018.

Cataract waiting list as at Dec 20th 2018: