Confusion on future of treatment fund

CONFUSION surrounded the future role of the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) after the Health Minister said he had asked it to “cease making further commitments” while at the same time reassuring patients that they can continue to apply for procedures under the scheme.

Dr James Reilly said last night operations would continue under the NTPF “but not maybe in the way they did before” following his establishment of a Special Delivery Unit (SDU) that will focus on reducing trolley waits in Emergency Departments and on cutting waiting lists in the health services.

The NTPF has concentrated on cutting waiting lists since it was set up to do so in 2002 and it organises operations for qualifying public patients waiting more than three months for procedures.

Dr Reilly said the NTPF makes a commitment to patients three months in advance and he had asked it to cease doing so. This is to allow the head of the SDU, Dr Martin Connor, to finalise a plan outlining revised arrangements to deal with public patients on waiting lists, expected to be ready by September.

Dr Reilly said last night that the work of the NTPF had “not been stopped” but they were looking at ways of creating greater flexibility in the system to allow the maximum number of patients be treated.

He said treatment would go ahead for those approved for procedures under the NTPF and that new patients could apply “and will be treated also”.

He said the SDU was looking at using money in a “more innovative way” and that they wanted a “quantum of money”, about €30 million, to be redirected from the €85m NTPF budget for this year, to the SDU.

Instead of all the money going on purchasing procedures, some could be used to employ greater expertise, Dr Reilly said.

The NTPF said it was looking forward “to playing a part in the revised arrangements which are being put in place to deal with public patients on waiting lists,” and that the most important priority was to reduce waiting times nationally.

It came as HSE figures showed more than 25,000 children and adults waiting for elective surgery.

In addition, an estimated 200,000 people are waiting to be seen at an outpatient clinic.

Dr Reilly said yesterday that the waiting list problem would be solved within three years.