Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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643. To ask the Minister for Health his plans and timeline to permanently increase the capacity in the health service in order that it can run at 80% capacity rather than near to 100% as it was prior to outbreak of Covid-19 to ensure public health physical distancing rules and safe staffing levels can be complied with and extra capacity for crises in addition to tackling the waiting lists and accident and emergency overcrowding; his views on whether this requires permanently retaining all private hospital capacity under the control of the HSE; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8282/20]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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On 5 May 2020, the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) agreed that its recommendation of 27 March to pause all non-essential health services should be replaced with a recommendation that delivery of acute care be determined by appropriate clinical and operational decision-making. Application of the essential risk mitigating steps set out in the guidance developed under the NPHET Expert Advisory group will have operational implications that will impact on throughput.

My Department, the HSE and the National Treatment Purchase Fund are currently working together to estimate the impact of Covid-19 on Scheduled Care waiting lists with a view to informing activity going forward. As the system continues to deliver Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 care side-by-side over a more prolonged period, my Department and the HSE will continue to work closely together to protect essential non-Covid-19 acute care and progress the provision of more routine non-Covid-19 care.

The HSE is currently working to develop a continuity of services plan to examine how healthcare activity suspended during Covid-19 can be resumed while maintaining acute occupancy at 80% to provide for surge capacity in the event of a further wave of Covid-19. This work should enable non-urgent elective care to resume within the necessary constraints.

The key to maintaining reduced acute hospital occupancy is to address the gap between capacity and demand as set out in the Health Service Capacity Review 2018. The HSE has advised that plans to address the findings of the capacity review are currently being revised in response to the emerging and potential long-term impact of Covid-19, and my Department is continuing to engage with the HSE in this regard.

The Government published its Action Plan in Response to Covid-19 on 16 March. A critical element of the strategy was to put in place an arrangement with the private hospitals to use their facilities as part of the public system, to provide essential additional acute hospital services for the duration of the emergency. The terms of the arrangement reflected the expected Covid-19 pandemic at time of signing. It is in place for three months up to the end of June, with an option to extend it. Under the Terms to the agreement a decision to extend the arrangement must be notified to the private hospitals by the end of this month. The arrangement is currently under review and depending on the outcome a decision will be made on whether to extend or not. Any decision regarding an extension would have to be considered in the context of the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic and the most effective use of resources in tackling it. Therefore, while there is an option to extend the arrangement, it is not intended that the arrangement will be permanent.