David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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657. To ask the Minister for Health the core and once-off budget allocated to and the expenditure of the National Treatment Purchase Fund in each of the years 2016 to 2021, inclusive; the amount spend in the public system and the amount spent on private services by service-type; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15987/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Improving access to Scheduled Care and reducing waiting time for patients for hospital operations and procedures is a key priority for Government. The allocation to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) has increased year-on-year from €5.1million in 2016, €22.6 million in 2017, €55 million in 2018, €75 million in 2019, €100 million in €2020, €130 million in 2021 and there was a further increase announced in Budget 2022 to €150 million. For 2021 and 2022 the core NTPF budget was €100 million, additional allocations of €30 million in 2021, as a once off Covid related payment and €50 million in 2022 to help reduce hospital and community waiting lists were granted.

The 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.

The information requested by the Deputy in relation to the amount spent by the NTPF in the public system and on private services, is outlined in the following table, provided to my Department by the NTPF.