Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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51. To ask the Minister for Health the status of the review of bed capacity in the acute hospital sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38010/16]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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80. To ask the Minister for Health further to Question No. 558 of 15 November 2016, if the parameters and terms of reference for the bed capacity review have been set; the status of the bed capacity review; the person or body that will undertake this review; the timeframe for the review; when this will conclude; the definition of a bed in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37854/16]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 51 and 80 together.

The Programme for a Partnership Government commits to the undertaking of a national hospital bed capacity review "to establish the number, type and location of beds required into the future recognising the need for a range of beds including critical care, palliative and day case bed stock", with the intention that this would form part of the preparations for the Government's review of the Capital Plan 2016-2021.

This is an important piece of work which will enable the determination of future capacity requirements and will provide a basis for planning our health and social care services and assist in informing investment decisions over the coming period.

While the Programme for a Partnership Government explicitly commits to a review of hospital bed capacity, I believe that this presents us with an opportunity to consider capacity requirements across the health service more generally. I do appreciate that there are immediate strains within our acute hospital system. But I am also conscious that our growing and ageing population is going to drive demand for health and social care services more broadly. We know that the overall population increased by 6.8% over the period 2007 – 2016, while the numbers over the age of 65 increased by nearly 33%. This demographic pattern is going to continue in the coming years.

A comprehensive review which will assess current capacity and future capacity requirements across our primary, social and acute care services will allow us to properly examine and determine how the system as a whole can respond to these challenges. My Department has commenced work on an overall model of care which will inform the assessment of future capacity requirements across the different parts of the health sector. This model of care will be informed by international best practice and the work underway has included engagement with experts from the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies in this regard.

My intention is that the capacity review will be undertaken by my Department, with suitable external expert inputs as required. Initial work on scoping the project is already underway. I envisage that the review itself will commence early in the New Year and will be advanced sufficiently to enable it to contribute to next year’s mid-term review of the current Capital Plan (2016 – 2021).