Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the report of the Committee on the Future of Healthcare, we took evidence during our hearings that almost 75% of the activity in some of our general hospitals are coming through the emergency department. Consequently, elective work is being squeezed continually. Mr. Tony O'Brien, in his evidence to this committee, said that in one or two years time it will be almost 100% emergency work carried out in our hospitals and that less and less, if any, of the elective work has the bed capacity to be delivered in our general hospitals. I would like to hear Mr. Horan's views on that because if that is the case, the National Treatment Purchase Fund will actually be the only vehicle through which we can supply elective care to our patients. When we spoke to the Scottish health Minister, she also spoke to use about how in Scotland the NHS has bought a private hospital in Glasgow which has been designated as an elective-only hospital. That has been so successful that they are building five additional elective-only hospitals in Scotland: a second in Glasgow; one in Edinburgh; one in Aberdeen; one in Inverness; and one in the west of Scotland. Certainly, unless the report of the Committee on the Future of Healthcare is adapted, we are going to run into the situation where only emergency work will be supplied in our hospitals. Our elective lists, as we can see, are getting longer and longer, as are our outpatient lists. It is essential that our system changes.

We are conscious that if we start changing this ineffective system we could destabilise it and start to make our patient outcomes worse. There has been a lot of opposition this morning to the report of the Committee on the Future of Healthcare with regard to disentangling private care and public hospitals. We are doing that with a view to freeing up capacity in our public hospitals for public patients. I would like to get Mr. Horan's views on those comments.