Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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113. To ask the Minister for Health the progress to date on identifying a site for the new elective hospital for Cork included in the Sláintecare Implementation Strategy and Action Plan 2021-2023; if consideration will be given to the site at St. Stephen’s Hospital, Sarsfield Court, Glanmire, County Cork; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28574/21]

Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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130. To ask the Minister for Health if the new elective hospital for Cork included in the Sláintecare Implementation Strategy and Action Plan 2021-2023 will consist of both an inpatient and an outpatient facility; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28573/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 113 and 130 together.

The development of elective hospital facilities in Dublin, Cork and Galway is in line with the National Development Plan 2018, the 2018 Health Service Capacity Review and was recommitted to in the Programme for Government 2020 and the Sláintecare Implementation Strategy & Action Plan 2021-2023 (May 2021).

Development of elective centres is key to the separation of elective and emergency care.

Elective care has been subject to disruption due to surges in demand for emergency care. The establishment of elective centres will avoid the cancellation and delays in care.

In 2019 the Sláintecare Programme Implementation Office (SPIO) established an Elective Hospitals Oversight Group, under the joint governance of the Health Service Executive, Department of Health and Sláintecare, to guide the development of the elective hospitals. The Elective Hospitals Oversight Group has the following terms of reference:

1. To develop the elective hospital capacity with a ten-year horizon of need, which facilitates the separation of scheduled and unscheduled care.

2. To provide quicker, higher quality, safer care for selected, elective patients.

3. To create capacity for acute hospital sites and reduce/eliminate outlier boarding (trolleys).

4. To drive down waiting lists, both outpatient, inpatient and day case.

5. To reduce cancellations.

6. To reduce acute hospital footfall.

The Oversight Group is following the process outlined in the Public Spending Code, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform Guide setting out the value for money requirements for the evaluation, planning and management of large public investment projects in Ireland. As required under the Code, a Strategic Assessment Report has been completed and approved for the development of Elective Hospital facilities. This sets out the rationale for investment, the alignment of the programme with strategic requirements of Government, some initial options and potential costs, and the governance of the programme.

The Preliminary Business Case (PBC), in accordance with the Public Spending Code, is also under preparation. As part of the PBC process, the Elective Hospitals Oversight Group made a public call for site submissions from members of the public, the HSE, Land Development Agency and Hospital Groups. The closing date for this call was 4 June. Sites submitted are undergoing evaluation to examine their suitability, including a multi-criteria assessment and cost effectiveness assessment with a view to the Preliminary Business Case recommending a single preferred site option in each of the three locations. Only those sites submitted as part of the call for submissions and which were compliant with the requirements of the call are under consideration.

The site identification process in Cork and Galway has been fully informed by discussions with the South South-West Hospital Group. The site identification exercise sought submissions of sites sufficiently large to cater for future development needs in Cork, including new and replacement inpatient and outpatient facilities. The PBC is being developed with these future developments in mind.

Once completed, under the Public Spending Code, the PBC will be assessed by the Department of Public Expenditure & Reform and submitted to Government for its consideration.