Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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88. To ask the Minister for Health if he will outline in detail the plan for health services in South County Dublin with regards to the new configuration of services at Loughlinstown, St Michael's and St Vincent's Hospitals; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22625/13]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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St. Columcille's Hospital Loughlinstown provides joint acute hospital services with St. Vincent's and St Michael's, Dun Laoghaire. Together, they provide a range of services for the catchment of Dublin South-East and Wicklow, across three sites in a collaborative arrangement. The establishment of hospital groups will ensure that these hospitals have a central role in the future delivery of good quality care for patients.

Securing the Future of Smaller Hospitals: A Framework for Development offers clear information about the role of our smaller hospitals and what they will do in the future. While the Framework focusses in particular on the role of nine smaller hospitals, including St. Columcille's, which have been the subject of particular attention from the Health Information and Quality Authority, the principles behind it will apply to all smaller hospitals. In developing the Framework, the Government is clear that (i) there is an important future role for smaller hospitals, in which they will provide services for more patients, not fewer; (ii) no acute hospital will close, and (iii) safety issues in all acute hospitals, large or small, must be fully addressed, by providing the right type of service, for the right patient in the right setting. This framework will demonstrate clearly that the future of smaller hospitals is secure. It outlines the need for smaller hospitals and larger hospitals to operate together and therefore is intrinsically linked to the on-going work regarding the development of hospital groups.

We know that the traditional practice of providing as many services as possible in every hospital is neither sustainable nor safe. Professor John Higgins chaired a strategic board on the establishment of hospital groups and I have received his report, which is based on a comprehensive consultation process and contains almost 60 recommendations on the formation, management and governance of hospital groups, all of which are strongly endorsed by the Strategic Board. The formation of Irish acute hospitals into a small number of groups, each with its own governance and management, will provide opportunity for hospital services to be configured to deliver high-quality, safe patient care in a cost-effective manner.

I appreciate that both of the reports and the related government decision are anxiously awaited. However, this is the most radical and most fundamental modernisation of our acute health system infrastructure since the State's foundation and I took very seriously my obligation to consider the reports closely, to assure myself and my Cabinet colleagues that they provide a robust basis to enable timely access to a high quality and sustainable hospital service for those who need it.

The Deputy will be pleased to learn that I submitted the reports to Government this morning for its consideration and decision and the reports have been accepted. Officials in my department are now in the process of making suitable arrangements for the publication of these reports as soon as possible.