Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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399. To ask the Minister for Health the number of children living in County Meath waiting to see a paediatrician for an outpatient appointment, a paediatric cardiologist, a paediatric ENT specialist and a paediatric surgeon. [47473/19]

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.

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.

My Department is working with the HSE and National Treatment Purchase Fund to develop the Scheduled Care Access Plan 2020. The National Service Plan 2020 will set out HSE 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 is outlined in the following table.

Paediatric Outpatients for Paediatric Surgery, ENT, Cardiology, with a residence in Co. Meath.