Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The major action being taken to reduce overcrowding in Letterkenny over the winter period is the provision of ten additional beds in the hospital, which are being funded and provided. I am told they will be made available from this week. This is a real action, not commentary or window dressing; it is ten additional beds for the hospital which represents a significant increase in capacity. It is normal for hospitals around the country to flex up and down their elective surgical activity - to do less in January and February when the emergency department is very busy and many people are coming through it and do more in the summer period when the emergency departments are relatively quiet. That makes sense and I hope the Deputy understands why that is. It is not intended to apply to urgent and cancer surgeries, which it is unsafe to defer. Budgets are not allocated based on inpatient numbers because hospitals do a lot more than treat inpatients - they have outpatients, day-cases, laboratories and, in some cases, specialties. Where a hospital has very expensive specialties, such as cancer or spinal surgery, it will need a higher budget, so it is incorrect to compare budgets based solely on inpatient numbers.

The conversion year for activity based funding is 2016. For the first time, hospitals will achieve a chunk of their budget based on their activity, which will benefit hospitals that are more efficient than others. All hospitals will claim they are more efficient than others. Activity based funding will show whether that is the case.

I am told efforts to restore the urology services are currently in hand.

As regards intervention in the management of individual hospitals or hospital groups, that is not practical. Every hospital has its own management which, in turn, has my support. It is important they are allowed to do their job. It would not practical or possible for any Minister to try to manage every hospital or health care institution in the country. Were that to occur, the management of those institutions would be undermined.

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