Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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1120. To ask the Minister for Health if the management of UniversityHospital Galway has outsourced bed management; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20662/17]

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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1121. To ask the Minister for Health the cost of having bed management outsourced as opposed to bed management in-house. [20663/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1120 and 1121 together.

Bed management is not being outsourced at Galway University Hospitals. Galway University Hospitals and University Hospital Limerick were selected as pilot sites for a national programme to improve patient flow in our healthcare system. This national programme, the National General Electric-Finnamore Patient Flow project, commenced at GUH in November 2016 and is still underway on site.

Through a number of prioritised projects, this three year programme aims to deliver visible and effective improvement to patient flow, whilst also developing the skills of clinical and operational staff alike. The GE-Finnamore Patient Flow project is funded on a national level; there are no local costs.

Under this initiative, the Hospital is progressing a number of key process improvement initiatives, including optimising ED escalation procedures; patient flow processes; bi-directional flow to/from other Saolta hospitals; as well as capacity modelling for in-patients and outpatients. The project encompasses Scheduled Care patient flow and includes assessment of processes such as bed management.

In summary, the GE-Finnamore Patient Flow project involves the use of external consultants, who are currently advising Galway University Hospitals and University Hospital Limerick with regard to potential improvements that can be made in internal hospital processes, including aspects of bed management. These processes will, however, continue to be managed by the Hospitals themselves and are not being outsourced.