Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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31. To ask the Minister for Health the plans he has in place to reduce emergency department services in Portlaoise hospital in County Laois; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13754/16]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I am committed to securing and further developing the role of Portlaoise Hospital as a constituent hospital within the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group.

Patient safety and outcomes must come first. There have been a number of reports on Portlaoise Hospital in recent years. These reports pointed to the need for reconfiguration of some services to ensure that patients are treated in the most appropriate setting by specialist staff that can safely meet their needs.

Since 2014 the focus has been on supporting the hospital to develop and enhance management capability, implementing changes required to address clinical service deficiencies, and incorporating the hospital into the governance structures within the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group. Governance and management arrangements in Portlaoise have been strengthened, additional clinical staff have been appointed and staff training, hospital culture and communications have improved.

The Dublin Midlands Hospital Group has recently produced a draft plan which sets out a proposed service design for a new model of clinical service delivery at Portlaoise. The draft plan has been discussed with my Department and is currently the subject of further work and consideration within the HSE.

Any change to services at Portlaoise Hospital, including plans for service reconfiguration, will be undertaken in a planned and orderly manner and will take account of current use of services, demands in other hospitals, and the need to develop particular services at Portlaoise in the context of overall service reconfiguration in the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group.

The important point to note is that this work is being done to strengthen services in Portlaoise from a patient safety and quality perspective and to ensure that services currently provided by the hospital that are not viable are discontinued and that services that are viable are safe, adequately resourced and developed based upon health needs. I am confident that these changes will improve services for patients at Portlaoise Hospital.