Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As Deputy Kelleher will be aware, on Tuesday the Minister for Health brought proposals to the Government which will result in the reorganisation of public hospitals into more efficient and accountable hospital groups that will deliver improved outcomes for patients. This represents the most fundamental reform of the Irish acute hospital system in decades.

Professor Higgins's report on hospital groups is based on a comprehensive consultation process and contains almost 60 recommendations on the formation, management and governance of hospital groups. The Minister has taken very seriously his obligation to consider the report closely to assure himself, the Cabinet and the public that it provides a robust basis for enabling timely access to a high-quality and sustainable hospital service for those who need it. The objectives of the groups are as follows: to achieve the highest standard of quality and uniformity in hospital care across the group; to deliver cost-effective hospital care in a timely and sustainable manner; to encourage and support clinical and managerial leaders and to ensure high standards of governance, both clinical and corporate; and to recruit and retain highly qualified nurses, NCHDs, consultants, allied health professionals and administrators for all hospitals.

The introduction of the groups will provide for organisational change in the first instance, giving more autonomy and better enabling the reorganisation of services in a well-planned manner. Over time this will help improve services and deliver better outcomes for patients. The Minister, Deputy Reilly, facilitated a number of briefings on Tuesday in that regard, including with Members of the Oireachtas. I note that quite a number of Members of the House welcomed the fact that they had had the opportunity of hearing at first hand from Professor Higgins on the strategic group's recommendations.

On Tuesday, the Minister for Health also published "Securing the Future of Smaller Hospitals", which offers clear information about the role of the smaller hospitals and what they will do in the future. The framework focuses, in particular, on the role of nine smaller hospitals. In developing the framework to address the development of smaller hospitals, the Government is clear that there is an important future role for smaller hospitals in which they will provide services for more, not fewer, patients; that no acute hospital will close; and that safety issues in all acute hospitals, large or small, must be fully addressed by providing the right type of service for the patient in the right setting. This framework will demonstrate clearly that the future of smaller hospitals is secure. It will set out what services can and should be delivered safely by these hospitals in the interests of better outcomes for patients.

The implementation of the hospital groups report will begin immediately. The Minister intends to seek and appoint a chairman for each group within the next two months. Advertisements to seek other board members will be placed in parallel with the process of appointing the group chairmen and the subsequent appointment of group CEOs and management teams. All appointments will be made based on the competencies that the individual brings to the board in line with the HIQA report on Tallaght hospital and, obviously, there will be reference to representation from geographical areas as well. Once formed, the groups will prepare within the first year of their formation a strategic plan for the delivery of services. These strategic plans will determine the way services are provided within each group. The operation of each group will then be rigorously reviewed in the second year, including all necessary due diligence checks, to determine whether it is in a position to advance to hospital trust status during 2015. These reviews may lead to changes in the composition of the trusts versus the traditional groups, as decided by the Government. This is as it should be.

The announcement represents a major milestone in the health reform programme and the Government is confident that the new groups will deliver a more effective and efficient hospital service for patients in all parts of the country.

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