Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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660. To ask the Minister for Health the reason the hospital groups do not have the same designated geographic area as the community health care organisations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20198/15]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The Report “The Establishment of Hospital Groups as a Transition to Independent Hospital Trusts” was published in February 2013. This report recommended the establishment of seven Hospital Groups which have now been set up on a non-statutory administrative basis.

In October 2014, the HSE launched the Community Health care Organisations (CHO) Report. The Report sets out plans for a comprehensive reorganisation of health services outside the acute hospital system into nine CHOs. The primary focus is to meet the maximum proportion of people's care needs in the communities where they live and to achieve joined-up, integrated services.

In determining the optimum organisational model for the CHOs, the HSE identified a requirement for integration between the different parts of the community health care services; between community health care services and acute hospitals; with wider public service organisations such as local authorities, the Child and Family Agency (Tusla), the education sector and An Garda Síochána, and with local voluntary organisations.

The option selected was arrived at after consideration of a number of options, details of which are contained in the HSE report on Community Health care Organisations. The option selected was deemed the most appropriate on the basis that it met a key requirement of linking primary care teams and networks with acute hospitals; it provided a strong basis for linkage with local authority boundaries and it struck an appropriate balance between an organisation of sufficiently large scale to support organisation and business capability, while at the same time being of sufficiently small scale to provide the local community connection and response required to deliver integrated care.

The CHO structures became effective in January 2015. It is envisaged that the principal day-to-day linkages at clinical and patient level will be between the primary care networks and the relevant service within the Hospital Group. There will also be significant inter-Hospital Group interfaces for certain national services and it is envisaged that individual CHOs will interface with hospitals from more than one Hospital Group. Work to give effect to these interfaces is comprehended by the reform programmes currently underway in the HSE.