Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Government is committed to delivering new national standalone Elective Hospitals in Cork, Dublin and Galway, which will enable separation of scheduled and unscheduled care. The new Hospitals will cater for low complexity / high volume cases and will see a large number of patients every day across a range of disciplines. Once established, the Elective Hospitals will provide some 977,700 procedures annually – representing a step change in the way elective care is delivered in Ireland.

In December 2022, the Government approved the next stage of the Enhanced Provision of Elective Care Programme and identified preferred sites for the development of new Elective Hospitals in Cork and Galway.

The Preliminary Business Case for Dublin is currently being finalised. This includes site selection, with options on publicly-owned lands within the health estate under consideration. Following the required internal and external assurance processes the Preliminary Business Case will be submitted for Government approval-in-principle at Gate 1 of the Public Spending Code. If approved, this will allow the HSE to commence the detailed design stage for Dublin.

In the shorter term, the HSE is developing Surgical Hubs to address current waiting times for a narrower set of procedures. These are modelled on the very successful Reeves Centre at Tallaght University Hospital. The Surgical Hubs will be developed in Cork, Galway, Limerick, Dublin (2 locations) and Waterford. On 26 May, the Government announced 4 of the 6 locations for the new Surgical Hubs. The site of the Surgical Hub for north Dublin will be finalised and announced soon. The HSE expects the new hubs to be operational in the next 12-18 months.