HSE to up treatment fund referrals

THE chief executive of the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) said yesterday he expected up to 1,800 out-patients to be treated under the scheme in Cork and Kerry this year.

Pat O’Byrne outlined progress in the region to members of the Health Services Executive (Southern) Forum, following complaints a number of months ago by the forum’s chairman, Cllr Ciaran Lynch, that Cork University Hospital in particular wasn’t using the fund to the maximum.

Earlier this year, Mr Lynch said CUH referred only 250 patients to the fund in 2005, while 2,000 were referred from the Galway region and a further 2,000 from Waterford.