Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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308. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide the details of the trust system to be introduced; the way this transition will take place; the new roles that these trusts will have; the structure and function that are envisaged; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16616/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Hospital Groups have been established on an administrative basis and my priority for 2015 is to get all the Hospital Groups up and running as single cohesive entities.

Primary legislation will be required in due course to give full effect to the introduction of Hospital Trusts. While Future Health sets the broad direction of travel for reforming the system, it was always made clear that an incremental approach to implementation would be taken. Future Health specifically referred to a “reform-learn-reform” approach being taken to the process which would enable us to make changes to the proposed approach while simultaneously making progress towards the final structures and delivering tangible improvements as we go.

Pending the enactment of legislation, the implementation of Hospital Groups will progress in a phased manner, which will provide for devolved decision-making, fostering flexibility, innovation and local responsiveness, while also adhering to prescribed national service objectives and standards. Phase II of the Health Reform Programme, as set out in Future Health, provides for the dissolution and replacement of the HSE with the introduction of a formal purchaser/provider split, the establishment of a Healthcare Commissioning Agency and a range of provider agencies, including Hospital Trusts. This is a complex health reform programme and it is essential that the hospital trust legislation is developed as part of the overall process and that the appropriate structures are in place in advance of formal establishment of trusts.

In the meantime each Group must develop and produce a strategic plan which will describe how they will provide more efficient and effective patient services; how they will reorganise these services to provide optimal care possible to the populations they serve; and how they will achieve maximum integration and synergy with other Groups and all other health services, particularly primary care/community based services.

My Department (with the assistance of the Strategic Advisory Group on the Implementation of Hospital Groups) will progress the significant body of work necessary to facilitate the transition from Hospital Groups to Trusts. It will set down the high level overarching policy to guide overall hospital services reorganisation from a national standpoint to inform and complement the plans of the Hospital Groups and will provide guidance on the definition of a Hospital Trust in an Irish context. The Groups and their respective strategic plans will be rigorously reviewed against criteria to test their suitability to proceed to become Hospital Trusts. The review of Groups should be completed before Trusts are legally established and if changes prove necessary; these will be made with Government approval when Hospital Trusts are being formed.