Máire Hoctor (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)

I will take the Adjournment on behalf of my colleague the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney.

The teamwork report, prepared for the Health Service Executive, has helped to inform the approach being adopted with regard to the transformation programme. The report clearly indicated that the current service configuration in the north-east region is unsustainable and recommended a reconfiguration of hospital services across the existing five hospital sites to ensure the highest level of patient safety. The report also identified a future role for all five hospital sites in the provision of acute hospital services.

The transformation programme for the north-east region involves widespread and fundamental change and is designed to build a health system in line with the model of care emerging internationally. In progressing the programme, the HSE has repeatedly emphasised its commitment that existing services in the region will remain in place until they are replaced with higher quality, safer or more appropriate services. The overriding aim of the programme, which has the full support of the Minister, is the need to improve safety and achieve better standards of care for patients in the region.

The transformation programme is approaching the end of its initial phase of detailed planning and is moving towards detailed design and implementation. The initial focus of the programme has been to have acute and complex care transitioned from five to two hospital sites by 2010. In determining the future capacity of each hospital in the region, the HSE will need to have regard to the findings of reviews which it commissioned and which highlighted the potential to use the existing bed complement in a more efficient manner. The reviews confirmed, for example, that acute hospital admissions and length of stay could be reduced if access to a range of support services is improved.

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