Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 50: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the control she will have on the running of the proposed private co-located hospitals; if she has had discussions with a group (details supplied) on this issue; if that group will run the hospitals for which they have applied for planning permission; if they will be subject to regulation of standards by the Health Information and Quality Authority; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16236/08]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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I issued a policy direction under section 10 of the Health Act 2004 to the Health Service Executive (HSE) on 14 July 2005 (amended on 18 April 2007) on the co-location of private hospitals on the sites of public hospitals. This initiative aims to make available approximately an additional 1,000 public acute hospital beds for public patients by transferring private activity, with some limited exceptions, from public acute hospitals to co-located private hospitals and is considered the fastest way of doing this. The policy direction sets out, inter alia, an assessment framework for assessing co-location proposals. It is, however, an operational matter for the HSE to comply with and to implement the policy direction on co-location.

In accordance with a competitive dialogue procurement process, the Board of the HSE has approved successful bidder status for the development of co-located hospitals at the following six hospital sites:

Waterford Regional Hospital

Cork University Hospital

Limerick Regional Hospital

Sligo Regional Hospital

Beaumont Hospital

St. James's Hospital

My Department has been advised by the HSE that successful bidder status for the Beaumont, Cork and Limerick Hospital projects has been awarded to the Group referred to by the Deputy. The Project Agreements for these sites have been signed. The Group is now in discussion with the HSE on a number of matters relating to the Project Agreements. My Department will be briefed on the outcome of these discussions. It is anticipated that the Project Agreements for the three other sites at Waterford, St James's and Sligo Hospitals will be signed in the near future.

Connolly Hospital and Tallaght Hospital, which are also participating in the co-location initiative, are at an earlier stage of the procurement process. A tender in relation to Connolly Hospital is under consideration and it is expected that the invitation to tender (ITT) for Tallaght Hospital will issue shortly.

Finally, I established the Commission on Patient Safety and Quality Assurance last year to develop proposals for a health service wide system of governance based on corporate accountability for the quality and safety of all health services. One of its terms of reference is to specifically examine and make recommendations in relation to a statutory system of licensing for both public and private health care providers and services. The Commission is due to report by July this year.