Seán Connick (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I will be taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney, and I thank Deputy Sherlock for raising the question.

Patient safety is central to the delivery of health services and people must have confidence in the care they receive and have the best possible outcomes. The overwhelming consensus among clinical experts, as seen in cancer care, is that patients have demonstrably better outcomes where complex care is delivered with the necessary staff and equipment and with sufficient volumes of activity. The evidence also emphasises the need to provide timely emergency care to patients in an appropriate setting.

Achieving better outcomes for patients will require hospitals to change the services they deliver to their communities and how those are delivered. Reconfiguration of acute services in the Cork and Kerry area will produce improved services. The clinical benefits for patients will be significant and the treatment offered will be of the highest standard. The Minister and the HSE recognise the importance of Mallow General Hospital and the contribution it has made, and will continue to make, to the provision of hospital services in the region.

The HSE has not yet finalised its proposals for the future reconfiguration of the region's hospitals. In August 2010, HIQA announced an investigation into the quality and safety of services in Mallow General Hospital. The authority had identified concerns about the types of patients being treated, centred on major surgery, emergency and critical care services.

The purpose of the investigation is to ascertain whether safe, quality services and practices are in place and to ensure that, where there may be a serious risk to the health or welfare of a person receiving a service, such risks are identified and recommendations made with a view to eliminating or reducing risks for patients. In line with the terms of reference, the authority's review will include measures at local, regional, corporate and national level to implement the national recommendations in the authority's 2009 Ennis report; current arrangements for management and provision of clinical services in Mallow to minimize risks to patient safety, including critical and acute care and anaesthetic, surgical and emergency services; and local, regional, corporate and national clinical and managerial governance arrangements for safe care and transition to new service provision models. The authority will publish its report and recommendations following the completion of the investigation.

Finally, the Minister wishes to emphasise that she rejects any claim that the HIQA investigation is spurious as suggested in the text of the Deputy's question. HIQA is an independent statutory body that makes its own decisions about what investigations to carry out and in what way. The process will be entirely independent and there will be no pre-judgment of the outcome. The investigation will deal not solely with Mallow, but will also look at the wider context of acute hospital services in the region. The Minister supports the decision by HIQA to carry out an investigation and she believes that it will be to the benefit of service quality for patients. I am satisfied that the outcome of these processes will lead to a strengthening of the quality and safety of acute hospital services for people in the Cork and Kerry region and will ensure that they have access to health services that comply with best practice in the right facilities and in a timely manner.

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