Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I emphasise that the hospitals across the country are managed by the HSE and not by the Department of Health. The funding that is obtained by the Minister for Health in the budget is allocated to the HSE, which manages the budgets that are needed to run hospitals. According to the information I have received from the HSE, there is spare capacity in Cork University Hospital. There is no reference in the information I have received to patients being referred to the Bon Secours Hospital. I will make further inquiries for the Senator to ascertain whether such referrals are being made. It is clear that any spare capacity that exists within our own public hospitals should be used. The point I would make with regard to the downgrading of cardiac services is that the patient has to be at the centre of everything we are doing and at the heart of the policies being developed by the Department of Health. It is clear that patients have to come first. Therefore, the downgrading of any cardiac services would be a retrograde step and would certainly not be condoned. I will ask the HSE to provide the Senator with the details he has sought with regard to costs. I will also make inquiries about the use of private hospitals.