Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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191. To ask the Minister for Health the number of outpatient appointments outstanding for more than two, three and four years, respectively, at the end of November 2019 for each reporting hospital in tabular form. [52260/19]

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 NTPF increasing from €75 million in 2019 to €100 million in 2020.

My Department is working with the HSE and National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) 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 data requested by the Deputy is outlined in the table below. This data is also available on the NTPF website at:

Outpatient waiting list 2+ years, 3+ years, & 4+ years