John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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255. To ask the Minister for Health the number of procedures procured by the National Treatment Purchase Fund in each of the years 2017 to 2019 and to date in 2020, by the type and speciality of each procedure; the total expenditure incurred in each year; the amount of funding spent on procuring private treatment; and the amount spent procuring treatment in the public and voluntary hospitals in tabular form. [34300/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) procures capacity for high-volume procedures in order to positively impact waiting time for patients. Such procedures may be procured in both private hospitals (outsourcing), or public hospitals (insourcing). In order to ensure competitive pricing as part of their outsourcing programme, the NTPF works with private hospitals from a panel agreement and engages in procurement processes through e-tender.

In relation to insourcing, a public hospital may have some spare capacity but require further funding in order to utilise it. Such public hospitals may make a proposal to the NTPF, whereby the NTPF pay a fixed price per procedure performed. The amount paid by the NTPF meets the extra costs incurred by the public hospital in performing the procedures.

In relation to the information requested by the Deputy, the attached tables provide data in respect of the number of patients treated by top ten specialties in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The breakdown of patient care expenditure by specialty in 2017 and 2018 and the total expenditure figure for public and private hospitals is also provided.

The NTPF has advised that 2019 and 2020 financial data have not been provided as the Audited Annual Financial Statements 2019 and 2020 have not yet been finalised.