Tim O'Malley (Limerick East, Progressive Democrats)

I will be taking the matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children.

The Deputy's motion tonight refers to the Teamwork report on the acute hospital services in the north east and its relevance to the mid-west. Accordingly I would like to address the Teamwork report first.

The HSE commissioned Teamwork Management Services to undertake a review of hospital services in the north east and to provide an action plan for achieving the best possible acute care for patients in the region. The report, Improving Safety and Achieving Better Standards — An Action Plan for Health Services in the North-East, was presented to the board of the Health Service Executive in June 2006.

The report concludes that the present system, where five local hospitals in the north east deliver acute care to relatively small populations, is exposing patients to increased risks and creating additional professional risks for staff. This does not serve patients well, is not sustainable and must change. The report highlights the need to develop a high quality, responsive emergency and planned service, in line with international standards, by developing local services within existing hospitals and other local centres supported by a new regional hospital to be provided in the region.

The HSE has established a steering group and a project group to oversee the implementation of the recommendations of the report with a view to improving safety and standards across the acute hospital network in the north-east region.

With regard to the mid-west region, the Health Service Executive has initiated an independent review of acute hospital services in the region. The aim is to determine the optimum configuration of acute hospital services in the mid-west. The HSE is currently in the process of selecting an external consultancy to undertake the review, with a view to work commencing early in 2007.

The configuration of acute hospital services is a complex and difficult issue. Government policy is to build up health services in all regions of the country to provide safe, high-quality services that achieve the best possible outcomes for patients. Quality care and patient safety come first. No matter what county or region they come from, all patients should receive the same standard of quality assured care. This will mean that those services that can be safely delivered locally are delivered locally and the more complex services that require specialist input are concentrated at regional centres, or in national centres of excellence. Every report that has been produced in the past number of years has highlighted this requirement.

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