Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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94. To ask the Minister for Health the details of the access to care fund announced in Budget 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33465/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Government’s commitment to maintaining and improving access to care can be seen through the allocation of funding in the Winter Plan as well as in Budget 2021. An additional €240 million has been provided in Budget 2021 for an Access to Care Fund, €210 m of which will be allocated as required to the HSE and €30 m to the National Treatment Purchase Fund for the provision of treatment in both private and public hospitals in order to address capacity issues in acute hospitals and waiting lists. This funding means that those patients who require urgent and time critical care are seen as a matter of priority, while at the same time providing the much-needed capacity to provide routine care for patients on waiting lists.

My Department continues to engage with the HSE on the development of the National Service Plan, which will set out further details of how the €210 million allocation for the fund will be utilised. It is envisaged that some of this funding will be used to procure additional capacity in private hospitals. It is also envisaged that it can be used for Public hospitals. This will help to make up for the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on capacity in the public sector. The impact of this funding will be monitored by my Department.

This Government’s continued commitment to improving waiting times can be further seen through the allocation of the additional €30 million Access to Care funding to the National Treatment Purchase Fund. This brings the total NTPF budget for 2021 to €130 million, which will be used to source appointments and treatment for long-waiting patients, and will also be used to support access to diagnostic scans and fund additional HSE beds.