Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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314. To ask the Minister for Health the number of elective inpatient discharges in each public and voluntary hospital during the first six months of 2019. [28946/19]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Reducing waiting time for patients for hospital operations and procedures is a key priority for Government. Last year saw considerable improvement in the number of patients waiting for procedures. As a result of increased activity and the ongoing collaboration between the HSE and the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF), the number of patients waiting for an Inpatient or Day case procedure fell to 70,204 in December 2018, from a peak of 86,100 in July 2017. This represents a reduction of over 18% in the overall number of patients waiting for a procedure. The number of patients waiting more than 3 months fell by more than 17,700, or 31% in the same period from July 2017 to the end of December 2018.

Budget 2019 announced that the Government had further increased investment in tackling

waiting lists, with funding to the National Treatment Purchase Fund increasing from €55 million in 2018 to €75 million in 2019.  The joint Department of Health, HSE, and NTPF Scheduled Care Access Plan 2019 was published in March. Under the Plan the HSE, in line with the National Service Plan, will deliver 1.155 million elective inpatient and day case discharges at a value of €1.4 billion in 2019 and the NTPF will arrange 25,000 hospital operations and procedures at a value of €58 million.

In relation to the specific matter raised, I have asked the HSE to respond directly to the Deputy.