3615. Deputy Joanna Byrne asked the Minister for Health the number of patients outsourced at OLOLH Drogheda in each of the years 2016 to 2026 respectively, in tabular form. [61892/26]

Procurement of additional capacity in the private health system for public patients (outsourcing) can be done through both the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF).

The NTPF has advised my Department that the number of public patients in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda outsourced were 113 in 2019, 360 in 2020, 1,487 in 2021, 2,257 in 2022, 6,392 in 2023, 3,698 in 2024, 2,493 in 2025 and 5,030 to date in 2026.

The NTPF further advised that the Patient Access Management System (PAMS) which is used to report on commissioning of patient treatment was introduced in 2019, they have only included Inpatient and Endoscopy treatments arranged back as far as 2019, as collating records from the earlier years would be very resource intensive, Outpatient outsourcing only commenced in 2021.

I have asked the HSE to provide a direct response to the Deputy in respect of patients outsourced through its arrangements.