Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

As the Deputy is aware, the HSE acquired the assistance of outside expertise to visit a number of hospitals, look at their processes and make recommendations. Many of those recommendations related to improved procedures and processes within the hospitals and had nothing to do with extra capacity. For example, the HSE has acquired diagnostic capacity at Smithfield in Dublin for approximately 2,000 older patients who suffer from chronic illnesses who are directly referred there. The HSE required capacity for the waiting list in the Mater for an MRI and that was cleared in a matter of weeks by a private provider.

Direct access by GPs to diagnostic facilities will greatly improve performance in accident and emergency units, as will the provision of the out-of-hours service, particularly in the north of Dublin and in other parts of the country where many people end up in accident and emergency units who do not need to be there. These improvements will work together like a jigsaw — one does not work without the other. Simply providing more capacity without changing the way we do the business and what we do at acute hospitals will not lead to the improvements to which we all aspire.

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