Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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1205. To ask the Minister for Health the position regarding the oversight of the performance of hospital groups by the HSE and the accountability of the performance of hospital groups to him in view of the fact that a large number of parliamentary questions related to issues within hospitals and patient services are being referred for answer to the hospital groups themselves; his views on whether this may create an issue with respect to proper accountability and impartiality; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27267/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The HSE is responsible to the Minister for delivering the performance set out in its National Service Plan. To assist it in delivering on its commitments, the HSE has revised and enhanced its Performance and Accountability Framework for 2017. The Framework sets out how the HSE including the national divisions, the hospital groups and individual managers will be held to account for their performance.

It makes explicit the responsibilities of health service managers in the four equally important domains of performance which are: access to services; the quality and safety of those services; doing this within the financial resources available; and effectively harnessing the efforts of the workforce. The emphasis of the Framework is on recognising good performance, improving performance at all levels of the health service and ensuring that individual managers are held to account for their performance.

My Department oversees and monitors the HSE's implementation of its performance accountability framework and monitors implementation of the HSE corporate plan and annual national service plans.