Mr. Chris Nightingale:

In the baseline scenario of length of stay, it was examined at a regional level and by patient cohort as well. I refer to specialty and age group. The baseline was held as was. In scenario three - which looked at central hospital efficiencies - one of the outcomes of central hospital efficiencies, and integrated care, was reduction in length of stay. It was considered in scenario two as well. The Department was keen not to benchmark that against international comparators. Rather, it was keen to look within the Irish system at the length of stay. It was benchmarked against best performance internally. We looked at the median across all of the hospitals within age category and speciality. We asked what would happen if everybody got to the median level? For those at median, what would happen if we got to a 25th percentile? The answer was there would be some improvement over five years. That was felt by the steering group to be a reasonable improvement in length of stay. It was not a case of saying let us get to the position in Finland or Australia. It was to get to the best practice currently in Ireland. It was likewise with levels of allied health professionals, AHPs, and CHOs. It was all internally benchmarked against the best practice in the Irish system at the moment. That was felt to be a reasonable benchmark in respect of what should be pushed for, that is, scenarios that could be achieved rather than pie-in-the-sky scenarios.