Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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836. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to replace the Health Service Executive with a health commission and to provide an expanded role for private health companies in the public health system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10294/16]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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A major programme of health reform is underway, the aim of which is to deliver universal healthcare with access to services based on need and not on ability to pay. It is the intention of the newly formed Government to increase access to safe, timely care, as close to patients’ homes as possible.

As well as progressing health reform, I am also determined to push ahead with key building blocks for universal healthcare, including:

- the establishment of Hospital Groups and Community Healthcare Organisations;

- the implementation of Activity-Based Funding, and improved ICT and financial systems;

- Healthy Ireland and the public health agenda;

- building sufficient health system capacity to satisfy unmet demand;

- the expansion and development of primary and social care;

- the improved management of chronic diseases; and

- the phased extension of GP care without fees.

Seven Hospital Groups have been established on a non-statutory administrative basis. Pending the enactment of legislation, the Groups will continue to operate within existing legislative frameworks governing the health services and the policy and accountability frameworks of the Department of Health and the HSE. Each Hospital Group will be required to develop such a plan to describe how it will provide more efficient and effective patient services; reorganise these services to provide optimal care 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 and community care services.

The Programme for Government contains a commitment to provide €15m to the NTPF in 2017 to address waiting lists. The Department will engage with the NTPF and the HSE regarding the development of this initiative. In addition, the Department is currently engaging with the NTPF and the HSE in planning a dedicated waiting list initiative, which will be rolled out in 2016. I will be meeting with both the NTPF and the HSE to look at options for developing initiatives to tackle waiting lists this year and beyond.

Service delivery reform is also being advanced in all health services outside the acute hospitals. Primary care, social care, mental health, and health and well-being health services have been restructured into nine Community Healthcare Organisations (CHOs), with the aim of providing the maximum proportion of care to people in the most appropriate settings in the communities where they live. The CHOs have been established and their development is being driven forward.

The National Clinical Programmes and, in particular, the pilot Integrated Care Programmes will play an important role in reform as they work to achieve integrated care and integrated service delivery in the health sector by establishing models of person-centred, coordinated care.

My Department is currently carrying out research into healthcare commissioning models with a view to informing the development of a commissioning framework for Ireland. This process has included engaging with international experts in this area in order to learn from the experiences of other countries that have implemented commissioning systems. The role of a future Health Commission will be examined in the context of considering a suitable commissioning model.

It is also intended to request an Oireachtas All-Party committee to develop a single long term vision plan for healthcare over a 10 year period and I look forward to that Committee's work getting underway shortly.