Vol. 435 No. 6
98 Mr. Deenihan asked the Minister for Health if, in view of the capabilities and willingness of the private hospital sector to assist in reducing public patient waiting lists, he intends to direct health boards to put such work out to public tender in future.
Under the waiting list initiative which I launched earlier this year, the Deputy will be aware that my Department entered into agreements with health boards and hospitals throughout the country whereby an additional 17,254 additional procedures would be carried out this year.
A central feature of the initiative is that the agreed additional activity targets would be achieved by individual agencies in 1993. It was also made clear to the agencies involved that where they were satisfied that their own hospitals could not achieve the agreed targets, for whatever reason, they should endeavour to have the operations carried out elsewhere.
In all such cases it is a matter for the agency concerned to satisfy itself fully that the contracting hospital can meet the requirements in terms of timeframe, cost and quality of care.
