Madam, - Once again Maurice Neligan has criticised the National Treatment Purchase Fund in his column (Health Supplement, July 4th), just two weeks after the publication of the fund's annual report for 2005 which shows it has treated more than 43,000 patients to date.
Rather than focus on the impact the fund has made in reducing waiting times from two to five years (before its establishment in 2002) to two to five months (in 2006), Mr Neligan calls the NTPF "unaccountable". This is absolutely untrue. The NTPF is fully accountable to the Department of Health and Children and to the taxpayer and it is audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
Mr Neligan also says that hospital waiting-lists are now "buried in the maw" of the NTPF. I would like to point out that through the Patient Treatment Register (PTR) we now have, for the first time, a fully transparent, open and accountable management collation of waiting lists in Ireland. The PTR is the first online database of named patients waiting for an in-patient or day-case procedure. Patients, general practitioners and the general public can now access waiting-time information and see for themselves - facility that was not there previously.
The NTPF is a resource for patients throughout the country, many of whom waited unreasonably long periods for surgery. Irrespective of why public patients are on a surgical waiting-list, if they have been on a list for more than three months they can contact the fund on 1890 720 820. - Yours, etc,
PAT O'BYRNE, Chief Executive, National Treatment Purchase Fund, Tara Street, Dublin 2.