Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 56: To ask the Minister for Health if he was consulted on or if he intervened in the review of outpatient services at Cavan and Monaghan general hospitals which has resulted in a further reduction in services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8345/12]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Special Delivery Unit was established in my Department last July to tackle patient wait times for hospital services. Unacceptably high wait times have been tolerated for too long and have become systemic for both unscheduled and scheduled care. The problems have to be tackled step by step so that improvements can be sustained.

Up to now the number of patients waiting for OPD appointment has not been consistently and reliably quantified by all hospitals. The data has simply not been sufficiently accurate to be meaningful at a national level. The SDU has now begun to work with the HSE building a new approach to compiling and validating outpatient lists

The priority for the first quarter of 2012 is for hospitals to support an SDU/NTPF project to establish weekly monitoring of outpatient waiting list numbers. The first task is to collate, analyse and validate the number of outpatient referrals in the system. This work has been well advanced by the HSE during 2011. Once it has been finalised and considered it will enable the SDU to make recommendations to me in respect of an outpatient wait time target in 2012. In principle I will be adopting the same criteria of strict chronological management of the waiting list which is now in place for in-patient treatment.

The organisation of hospital services nationally, regionally and locally will be informed by the Clinical Programmes, which have been developed and implemented by the HSE, and by the work on the Framework for the Development of Smaller Hospitals. These inter-related programmes aim to improve service quality, effectiveness and patient access and to ensure that patient care is provided in the service setting most appropriate to individuals' needs. The planned introduction of hospital groups will also provide further opportunities for inter site cooperation.

There has been no reduction to date in the out patient activity levels in the Cavan and Monaghan Hospital group. There are currently plans in place to increase the out patient activity on the Monaghan hospital site which will alleviate the pressures currently experienced on the Cavan General hospital site. This will assist with managing the service level activity within the overall budget and service plan fro the Cavan and Monaghan Hospital group. The difficult budgetary position facing the health services this year means that maintaining and building on will be a significant challenge particularly in the initial few months of 2012, typically the busiest time for acute hospitals. However, I am encouraged by the recent successes of the SDU and those involved in the delivery of acute hospital services.