Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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224. To ask the Minister for Health the reason public patients in County Waterford are directed to Cork and Dublin at great personal discomfort and cost while bypassing a newly opened service (details supplied) in Waterford which is at present trying to close a service agreement to provide for these patients in their own locality and under the medical care and supervision of their own cardiologists; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35671/20]

Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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243. To ask the Minister for Health the rationale for the procurement procedures and cost-benefit analysis that the NTPF describes in sending public patient cardiac angiograms out of Waterford to centres in Dublin and Cork while bypassing the local private hospital cath lab which has been providing a cover cath lab service to University Hospital Waterford while its own cath lab was closed for seven months; and his views on the way in which public patient safety, patient cost and patient personal inconvenience are considered when the NTPF makes such decisions. [35807/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 224 and 243 together.

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.

The availability of capacity for the specific procedure required by the patient is a factor in the selection of treatment provider, as well as the ability and willingness of the patient to travel to another hospital to avail of treatment. Patients are contacted by their referring hospital with an offer of treatment at an alternative hospital and the NTPF advises that they endeavour to accommodate patients requiring procedures in hospitals closer to home, if they are requested by the public hospital to do so.

The NTPF works with public hospitals, as opposed to with patients directly, to offer and provide the funding for treatment to clinically suitable long waiting patients who are on an inpatient/day case waiting list for surgery, having been referred on to such a list following clinical assessment by a consultant/specialist at an outpatient clinic.

The key criteria of the NTPF is the prioritisation of the longest waiting patients first. While the NTPF identifies patients eligible for NTPF treatment, it is solely on the basis of their time spent on the Inpatient/Daycase Waiting List. The clinical suitability of the patient to avail of NTPF funded treatment is determined by the public hospital.