David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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63. To ask the Minister for Health the progress made to date by the productivity and savings task force; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39370/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The ongoing work of the Productivity and Savings Taskforce aims to ensure that we maximise the use of health funding by identifying savings and opportunities to improve productivity across the health service.

The Taskforce published an Action Plan last April and have met on 10 occasions to date this year. The Action Plan and minutes of meetings are published on the Government website:

www.gov.ie/en/collection/9a22b-productivity-and-savings-taskforce-and-medicines-taskforce/

This Action Plan is a live document that is responsive to change as implemented across the HSE. Updates and recalibrations of the Plan ensure the HSE and Department continuously reflect on what is working and what is not and adapt the Plan accordingly. This keeps focus on the most successful savings and productivity measures. This approach means that ongoing learning and improvements can continuously be reflected in the Plan. The Action Plan will continue be updated with additional measures and progress achieved over the course of 2024/2025.

To date, savings of €100 million on management consultancy, medicines, and agency expenditure are on track to be achieved by end-2024. Further savings measures are being targeted by end-2024, covering both pay costs (including agency staff usage and costs), and non-pay costs / procurement efficiencies in a variety of areas.

The HSE have introduced robust controls at regional level by the Regional Executive Officers in order to deliver on savings targets for 2024 and 2025. Controls introduced include strict headcount and pay cost expenditure limits, with a limited number of people within the HSE having the ability to add net additional employees to the payroll, as well as strict non-pay expenditure controls requiring all expenditure over €20,000 to be signed off by senior management.

The Taskforce has made significant progress on Productivity measures in a number of areas. In June 2024, a National Productivity Unit was established within the HSE. In conjunction with the Taskforce, the purpose of the Unit is to enable and assure a framework of productivity within the organisation, empowering staff to innovate, leverage and scale data led and evidence-based initiatives which optimise the productivity of health and social care services for the public.

Productivity achievements to date include the publication of Outpatient Department (OPD) data for 21 hospital sites, enabling clinicians and managers across the HSE to assess their own productivity comparatively against peers, to learn from others on how productivity can be improved and to unlock barriers to productivity that are site or region specific. Publication of data for remaining sites is planned for later in the year. The Taskforce will focus in utilising this OPD productivity data to drive efficiency, increase activity and reduce waiting list times. The intended outcomes of the OPD project over the coming weeks and months are to enable the delivery of Sláintecare targets within prescribed timeframes.