Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 21: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if she will ensure that the commitment given to the people of the north east that no service will be removed until a better service is in place elsewhere is kept; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16237/08]

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 27: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if, in view of the Health Service Executive plans to transfer all acute inpatient care from Monaghan General Hospital to Cavan General Hospital and all emergency surgery from Our Lady's Hospital Navan and out of hours emergency surgery from Louth County Hospital in Dundalk to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda, additional resources have been provided to the HSE to support these changes; if not, the way she intends to prioritise patient safety; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16294/08]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 21 and 27 together.

The Teamwork Report, prepared for the Health Service Executive, has helped to inform the approach being adopted in relation to the Transformation Programme. The report clearly indicated that the current service configuration in the North East region is unsustainable. It recommended a reconfiguration of hospital services across the existing five hospital sites and ultimately the development of a new regional hospital in order to ensure the highest level of patient safety. The Report also identified a future role for all five hospital sites in the provision of acute hospital services.

The Transformation Programme for the North East region involves widespread and fundamental change and is designed to build a health system that is in line with the model of care emerging internationally. In progressing the Programme the HSE has repeatedly emphasised its commitment that existing services in the region will remain in place until they are replaced with higher quality, safer or more appropriate services. The overriding aim of the Programme, which I fully support, is the need to improve safety and achieve better standards of care for patients in the region.

The Transformation Programme is approaching the end of its initial phase of detailed planning and is moving towards detailed design and implementation. The initial focus of the Programme is to have acute and complex care transitioned from 5 to 2 hospital sites by 2010. In determining the future capacity of each hospital in the region the HSE will need to have regard to the findings of reviews which it commissioned and which highlighted the potential to use the existing bed complement in a more efficient manner. The reviews confirmed, for example, that acute hospital admissions and length of stay could be reduced if access to a range of support services is improved.

In its draft Capital Plan the HSE is proposing to spend in the region of €100 million additional capital funding up to 2013 in the North East to progress the Transformation Programme. The HSE intends to make a capital allocation available in respect of each of the 5 hospitals in the region to meet the cost of interim infrastructural works necessary in each facility.

The reconfiguration of services in the North East in a way which demonstrably delivers safer and more effective services for people in that region will continue to have my full support.