Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I updated my Government colleagues on progress in implementing the National Elective Ambulatory Strategy on Tuesday 7 May, including on the identification of suitable sites in Dublin. I informed my colleagues that sites at the current Children's Hospital in Crumlin and at Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown had emerged as the preferred options for the development of 2 new elective hospitals in Dublin.

The two hospitals, when operational, will provide approximately 25 new operating theatres, 28 endoscopy suites and 30 minor operation rooms, alongside a significant number of diagnostic, treatment and consultation rooms. They will deliver additional capacity of over 620,000 procedures, treatments and diagnostics every year.

The Department of Health and HSE are working to develop and deliver these dedicated, standalone Elective Hospitals in Cork, Galway and Dublin as fast as possible to have them treating patients as soon as possible. The HSE has been developing detailed plans for the workstreams required, including workforce, digital/ICT, clinical and operational, public engagement and consultation. In late April the HSE launched Stage 2 of procurement (Request for Tender) for an Architect-led Integrated Design Team and Project Controls Team for Cork and Galway. The teams are expected to be appointed in the summer and will take forward the hospital design to pre-tender stage readiness, to progress site assessments to inform the planning process and finalise the procurement strategy. The work carried out on Cork and Galway can then be applied to the Dublin Elective Hospitals, ensuring, where possible, efficiencies in designs. Timelines for completion will evolve and be refined as the projects complete their various stages of build.

Given the scale and necessary lead-time to develop the four new Elective Hospitals, we are also addressing increasing capacity and addressing waiting lists by developing six surgical hubs at locations across the country, all of which will begin treating patients in 2024/2025.

The two hubs for Dublin (at Mount Carmel in South Dublin and Swords in North Dublin) are due to begin treating patients this year (2024) while the hubs in Galway, Cork, Limerick and Waterford will begin treating patients in 2025. The six hubs will deliver over 150,000 day cases, minor operations and outpatient consultations annually.