Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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55. To ask the Minister for Health the timeframe for the construction of a new hospital in County Cork; if a site has been selected; the stage the process is at; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12211/19]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Project Ireland 2040 and the National Development Plan are the long term plans which will provide the capital funding to develop dedicated ambulatory elective-only hospital facilities.

We must ensure that we carefully plan the use of this capital funding so as to meet the populations health needs and achieve value for money.    

New dedicated ambulatory elective-only hospital facilities will be delivered in Dublin, Cork and Galway. These facilities will provide high volume, low complexity procedures on a day and outpatient basis, together with a range of ambulatory diagnostic services. The aim is to both increase capacity in the hospital system and provide a better separation of scheduled and unscheduled care, in line with the recommendations of the Health Service Capacity Review and the Sláintecare Report. They will provide increased, protected capacity for elective treatment and free up capacity in major acute hospitals to address higher complexity and emergency care. These new standalone ambulatory, elective-only hospital and diagnostic facilities will be developed in line with hospital groups' strategic plans.

Developing criteria and selection/approval processes for the new ambulatory elective-only hospital facilities is a 2019 priority in the Slaintecare implementation plan.