Ms Caroline Pigott:

Good afternoon Chairman, Deputies and Senators. There are seven projects to improve safe and timely access to care and promote health and well-being. The first project is to implement the health service capacity review 2018. The three key work streams in this project relate to healthy living, enhanced community care and hospital productivity. It is about keeping people well in their homes and shifting care from acute hospitals into the community.

The second project is about scaling and mainstreaming innovative projects. The third project is about streamlining care pathways from prevention to discharge. The fourth project will develop elective centres in Dublin, Cork and Galway.

The fifth project is implementing a multi-annual waiting list reduction plan, project six is implementing the e-health programme and the seventh project relates to the removal of private care from public hospitals. That is implementing the Sláintecare contract.

The first project in programme one relates to the implementation of the recommendations of the health service capacity review 2018. This review projected to 2031 the staffing and physical infrastructure that would be required to meet the growing demands in the healthcare service. It factored in unmet needs, demographic and non-demographic pressures and reducing waiting lists over a four-year period. Three key reforms scenarios underpin the health capacity review. These are healthy living, enhanced community care and hospital productivity improvements. Implementation of these reforms reduces the need for an additional 7,000 acute beds to 2,600 acute beds. The increased acute bed capacity that is being funded in budget 2021 tracks the reform scenario outlined in the health capacity review.

Implementation of these three reform pillars involves the complex mix of interrelated projects that, when aligned, will collectively move towards providing safer and more timely access to care and promoting health and well-being. Can Ms Magahy read the slides?