Mr. Maurice Power:

Good morning Chairman and members. I thank the Committee for the opportunity to speak today. I am joined by, Dr Pat Nash, group chief clinical director.

The Saolta University Health Care Group was established in August 2013 and comprises one model 4 hospital, Galway University Hospital, UHG, four model 3 hospitals at Mayo, Portiuncula, Sligo and Letterkenny, and one model 2 hospital in Roscommon. The group has 1,750 beds, employs over 9,700 staff and has a budget of €700 million for 2016.

We are unique in a number of aspects. We were one of the first hospital groups established originally in 2012. We are comprised only of statutory hospitals and we provide care to a clearly defined geographical population, that is, over a quarter of the country from Galway to Donegal, a population of 830,000. We have a strong relationship with our key academic partner, National University of Ireland Galway, NUIG, and have recently opened medical academies in Letterkenny, Sligo and Mayo. The recently opened clinical research facility in UHG is a critical piece of infrastructure which provides the platform to develop new and innovative treatments, therapies and technologies. We work closely with our community colleagues in the west and north west. We have close links with Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry and this has delivered tangible benefits to our patients. The primary percutaneous coronary intervention, PCI, service is now operational and the new radiotherapy service is due to open later this year. The Saolta group provides a comprehensive programme of cancer care and we work collaboratively with the national cancer control programme, NCCP. The cancer programme is delivered through the clinical structures from Letterkenny down to Galway.

The basis for the establishment of hospital groups was to facilitate improved patient care pathways by integrating hospitals into cohesive networks. Our principal objective in the Saolta group is to provide timely access for all our patients to high quality, standardised, safe, sustainable and adequately staffed services in hospitals as close to patients' homes as is clinically appropriate. To maximise all our hospital sites, we are currently developing an integrated group clinical strategy which will be completed next year.