Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 23 Feb 2000

Vol. 515 No. 1

Written Answers. - Hospital Accreditation.

Bernard Allen

Question:

163 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children the reason there are two different accreditation systems in operation for hospitals, one for private hospitals and one covering the eight major academic teaching hospitals. [5430/00]

Bernard Allen

Question:

164 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children the funding, if any, being made available for the accreditation programme for public hospitals. [5431/00]

Bernard Allen

Question:

165 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children the standards required to be accredited under the new accreditation system for major academic teaching hospitals. [5432/00]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Martin):

I propose to take Questions Nos. 163 to 165, inclusive, together.

The introduction of an accreditation programme represents a major advance in promoting quality improvement in the acute hospital sector and provides agencies with a tool to assess their performance on a continuous basis against an agreed set of standards. The overriding objective of the scheme is the achievement of real and measurable improvement by ensuring that hospitals are operating in a safe and qualitatively effective manner.

I am pleased to inform the Deputy that funding of £1.2 million has been made available to date to support the development and introduction of the accreditation programme in the major academic teaching hospitals – MATHs. The accreditation programme will formalise standard setting and measurement across many aspects of a hospitals operations. The focus of the standards will be on the patient as he-she moves through an episode of care in the hospital. Standards will be developed around six interrelated functional areas applicable to each participating hospital: patient service groupings; leadership; information management; environment management; human resource management; and partnership.

I understand that development work on the standards and other aspects of the scheme will be completed by the last quarter of this year and the programme will be rolled out across participating hospitals in 2001.

A notable feature of the accreditation programme, which I very much welcome, is the relationship which has been established between the MATHs group and the Independent Hospital Association of Ireland – IHAI – as the representative body for private hospitals in Ireland. The IHAI and the MATHs group began to develop an accreditation scheme at different times and from different standpoints. However, they are now actively pursuing measures to bring about convergence of their respective endeavours. In this regard I was pleased to learn that the IHAI has formally agreed to work with the MATHs group on the establishment of a single accrediting body for the Irish health sector.