Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, who is in the Dáil Chamber.

As is happening in all developed countries, management of the performance of our health service is increasingly focused on the outputs achieved, rather than simply the inputs. Service delivery is about access to appropriate care for patients, not necessarily the number of beds in a hospital system or the number of consultants employed.

The 2010 national service plan commits the HSE to treating people more effectively, without reducing access to appropriate services, by reducing costs and reforming the way services are provided. In particular, undertaking more hospital activity on a day basis is in line with national and international best practice. There is considerable scope within existing resources to move inpatient cases to day treatment.

As the regional elective orthopaedic centre in the south east, as Senator Phelan referred to, Kilcreene provides inpatient, day case, outpatient and extensive after-care services. The HSE is satisfied that its 2010 service plan target of over 600 day case procedures at Kilcreene will be achieved, if not exceeded. In addition to these 600 day case procedures, some 750 other cases will be treated on an inpatient basis and over 5,000 outpatient consultations will be provided.

As has been standard practice in hospitals for many years, during the months of July and August a number of theatre and temporary bed closures are planned at Kilcreene. This enables efficiencies to be achieved and facilitates hospital staff to avail of leave during the peak summer period. It is also a time of year when many people prefer not to be in hospital for planned procedures.

To ensure the continuation of the planned level of elective inpatient and day case services for 2010, it will be necessary to continue the closure of 20 beds for the remainder of this year. In conjunction with this, a small number of nursing and support staff will be redeployed to the HSE's community services in the Carlow-Kilkenny area. This will result in additional resources for elderly care and will enable enhanced support for people who can remain at home and receive treatment without requiring admission to a hospital or a residential nursing facility.

I wish to emphasise that while the number of inpatient beds at Kilcreene will be reduced, the HSE is working to maximise the number of patients treated within the resources available. These are challenging times for all involved in the provision of health services. However, the Minister is satisfied that the measures the HSE is adopting in Kilcreene are appropriate to ensure the maximum number of patients benefit from the resources available to Kilcreene in 2010.