Maeve O'Connell (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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981. To ask the Minister for Health the plans on how her Department will reduce surgical wait times for patients in the public health service. [17301/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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It is acknowledged that many patients are still waiting too long for hospital appointments and treatments. I am conscious of the burden that this places on patients and their families.

I published the Waiting List Action Plan (WLAP) for 2025 on February 12th, representing this Government’s commitment to reducing waiting times for patients and improving access to hospital care.

In keeping with this commitment, significant funding of €420m is being allocated to the Waiting List Action Plan for 2025, €190m for the HSE and €230m for the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF).

WLAP 2025 sets out the key reform priorities and actions which align with the Sláintecare Reform Programme and support the achievement of 2025 targets. The Government is actively working to increase elective care capacity in Ireland, ensuring that high-quality and timely scheduled care is available to all.

The new HSE Surgical Hub for South Dublin (Mt Carmel) opened in February and is expected to ramp up activity capacity throughout 2025 as it becomes fully operational. Surgical Hubs are being developed in South Dublin, North Dublin, Galway, Cork, Waterford, Limerick with a further hub in the North West under consideration. It is expected that the Hubs, once fully operational, will provide 4,000 day case (DC) procedures, 5,800 minor procedures and 18,500 OPD appointments each year above and beyond current levels of service delivery.

The National Perioperative Patient Pathway Enhancement Programme (NPPPEP) aims to embed a sustainable, standardised and data-driven approach to measuring, evaluating, and optimising the use of available theatre capacity. In 2025, the plan is to expand the NPPPEP to enable increased theatre efficiency, optimised throughput, and reduced waiting times for surgical procedures.

With the 2025 WLAP, we will continue to build upon the progress delivered to date under the multi annual action plan approach, progressing towards the ultimate vision of a public healthcare service in which everyone has timely access to high-quality scheduled care, where and when they need it.