Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 144: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the steps she intends to take to implement the recommendations following publication of the report into the death of Pat Joe Walsh at Monaghan General Hospital; the timeframe for the implementation of these recommendations; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29530/06]

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 173: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if she has received the report of the independent private inquiry into the death of Mr. Patrick J. Walsh at Monaghan General Hospital on 14 October 2005; the discussions she has had on this report with the Health Service Executive; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29463/06]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 144 and 173 together.

Following the death of Mr. Patrick J. Walsh in Monaghan Hospital on 14 October 2005 the Health Service Executive commissioned Mr. Declan Carey, a consultant surgeon at Belfast City Hospital and an honorary senior lecturer at Queen's University, and Professor John Monson, Professor of Surgery University of Hull, to carry out an independent and external review.

The HSE published the Report of the Independent Inquiry on 7 September. The Report details the difficulties that arose in trying to secure Mr. Walsh's transfer from Monaghan to either Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda or Cavan General Hospital. It also exposes a failure in communications between clinicians and hospitals in the region.

Since the death of Mr. Walsh, a new protocol in relation to patient transfer has been put in place. It provides that all requests for transfer from Monaghan General Hospital to Cavan General Hospital or Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda should be granted and processed immediately.

The HSE has recently established a Steering Group and a North East Project Group to oversee a programme to improve safety and standards across the acute hospital network in the North East Region having regard to the issues raised in this Report and the Report prepared for the HSE by Teamwork Management Services on Improving Safety and Achieving Better Standards — An Action Plan for Health Services in the North East.

The Teamwork Report makes a number of short, medium and long-term recommendations. It concludes that the present system, where five local hospitals deliver acute care to relatively small populations, is exposing patients to increased risks and creating additional professional risks for staff. The Report highlights the need to develop a high quality and responsive emergency and planned service, in line with international standards, by developing local services within existing hospitals and other local centres supported by a new Regional Hospital.

Led by the HSE's National Hospitals Office, the Steering Group has representation from key stakeholders such as clinicians and primary care providers. The Project Group is being led by a Consultant Surgeon from outside the Region.

The HSE has given me an assurance that, in progressing the implementation of these reports, there will be no discontinuation of existing services until suitable alternative arrangements have been put in place.