Funding for James Reilly's initiatives to cut waiting lists were slashed by 63% this year, with further major cuts expected next year, figures have shown.

The major cut in funding has coincided with a 115% increase this year in the number of patients waiting over nine months for treatment.

According to figures provided to irishhealth.com, the Department of Health gave the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) €13.99 million for waiting list initiatives this year, while the HSE says it has so for this year had only €1.17 million allocated for the Special Delivery Unit (SDU), which is also tasked with reducing lists.

However, the NTPF and SDU received €40.59 million in 2012, which means their targeted budget to cut waiting lists was cut by 63% this year. And the bulk of the funding allocated to waiting list initiatives this year was used to cover costs arising from cutting waiting lists in 2012.

The SDU was set up by Health Minister James Reilly in the autumn of 2011 to work with the existing NTPF to tackle growing waiting lists. SDU funding was put under the remit of the HSE in January 2013.

During 2012, when waiting list initiative funding was at a considerably higher level, progress was made in reducing treatment waiting lists. However, there has been a major increase in treatment lists in the past 12 months.

Generally, the numbers waiting for treatment in all time categories have increased steadily between August 2012 and August 2013, with a 115% rise in the numbers waiting over nine months for treatment in the year to August 2013, according to latest figures.

While there has been some progress achieved by the NTPF and SDU over the past two years in tackling ED trolley numbers, the numbers waiting in EDs and on wards is still substantial.

The waiting list initiatives have made some progress in cutting long waiters for outpatient appointments - however just over 84,000 are still waiting over a year to see a specialist in outpatients, with 374,000 in total on these lists.

In addition to the 63% cut in waiting list initiative funding between 2012 and 2013, the NTPF has has its funding cut again for 2014.

The NTPF has been allocated only €5.1 million for 2014, a cut of 64% in its 2013 allocation

The HSE says its 2014 waiting list funding under the SDU will not be clear until its service plan is published next week.

The Department of Health told irishhealth.com that of the €13.99 million in funding provided for the NTPF this year, just under €10 million was allocated to meet liabilities from work carried out in 2012 to support SDU waiting list performance improvement programmes.

It said the smaller NTPF allocation for next year reflected the fact that it is not envisaged that such liabilities will arise in 2014.

In addition to the cut in waiting list funds allocated for next year, there was a drop from €40.59 million provided in 2012 to €15.157 to date in 2013, representing a 63% cutback.

In 2012, the waiting list initiative allocation had initially been fixed at just over €70 million, but it was chopped by €30 million to meet the deficits being run up in health service spending.

A total of €85.6 million was allocated in 2011 to cut waiting lists; the SDU was set up by Minister Reilly in the autumn of that year.

Since 2011, around €1.8 million has been spent on consultants hired to work on waiting list initiatives.

The Department of Health has set a target of having no patient waiting over eight months for hospital treatment   by the end of this year and no patient waiting over 12 months for an outpatient appointment.

However, with hospitals already under severe budgetary and workload pressures, and a reduction in waiting list funds, these targets will be challenging to meet and maintain into 2014.