James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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403. To ask the Minister for Health the number of persons in County Wexford awaiting cataract operations in each of the years 2015 to 2018 and to date in 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41917/19]

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. In this regard, the Government is committed to improving waiting times for hospital appointments and procedures.

Under the Inpatient Day Case Access Plans for 2018 and 2019, cataracts has been among the specialties targeted by the NTPF, and by end of September 2019, the number of people waiting nationally for a cataract procedure had almost halved, from 10,024 in July 2017 to 5,074. In this same period, there has also been a reduction of 88% in the number of patients waiting over 9 months for a cataract operation.

More broadly, Budget 2020 announced that the Government has further increased investment in tackling waiting lists, with funding to the National Treatment Purchase fund (NTPF) increasing from €75 million in 2019 to €100 million in 2020. The year-on-year increases to the National Treatment Purchase Fund since Budget 2017 reflect this Government’s priority to improve waiting times for patients to access hospital treatment.

My Department is working with the HSE and National Treatment Purchase Fund to develop the Scheduled Care Access Plan 2020. In this regard, the HSE National Service Plan 2020 will set out a planned activity level for the year ahead, while the NTPF will work with the hospital system to provide additionality to improve access to inpatient/daycase treatment and with a particular focus on hospital outpatient services.

In this regard, I would encourage all hospital groups and individual hospitals to engage with the NTPF to identify waiting list proposals for the remainder of this year and for 2020.

The information requested by the Deputy has been provided by the National Treatment Purchase Fund and is outlined in the table below.

IPDC Total Waiters for a Cataract Procedure with an Area of Residence in Co.Wexford 2015-2019