Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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425. To ask the Minister for Health the persons or bodies his Department and the HSE met to construct the winter plan for the health service; and the reason it has not been published despite it being deep into winter. [50816/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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While the HSE intend to publish the winter plan on 6 December, significant elements of the Plan are already underway. This includes the roll out of increased home support packages to help people to return from hospital to their homes as soon as possible with the supports they need.

My Department has engaged extensively with the HSE throughout the year to ensure the most effective response to the challenges faced by our hospital system in the provision of unscheduled care this winter.

In the first instance, the HSE carried out a review of unscheduled care performance during Winter 2017/18 to assess what worked well and highlight areas for improvement to inform the planning process for the winter ahead. As part of the review, the HSE convened a joint lessons learned session on 17 April attended by members of the HSE Leadership Team, relevant representation from associated divisions and programmes and officials from my Department.

The HSE then requested singular integrated winter plans from Hospital Groups and Community Health Organisations in June 2018 and held review meetings with the Hospital Group CEOs and the associated Community Health Care Organisation to formally assess the plans against guidance issued.

I subsequently held meetings with Hospital Groups and Community Health Care Organisations to discuss their plans for winter preparedness during September and October. These meetings were attended by officials in my Department and senior management in the HSE.

Along with officials in my Department, I participated in meetings of the Emergency Department Task Force (EDTF) during the year, which had an ongoing focus on winter planning. I also attended the EDTF Unscheduled Care Forum on 4 September, which gathered a wide range of stakeholders from the Irish health system to provide perspectives from the frontline on initiatives to improve patient experience and overall system performance. These initiatives informed the winter planning process.

The EDTF endorsed the Winter Plan on 28 November, which is now in place and covers the period 1 December 2018 to 31 March 2019.

I have asked the HSE to reply to the Deputy directly about their engagement with other bodies in the winter planning process.