Vol. 536 No. 5
257 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children the agreement that has been reached between his Department and the Commercial Hospitals Representatives Association regarding the establishment of a single accreditation agency for Irish hospitals. [15126/01]
My Department has fully supported the development and introduction of the accreditation programme in the eight major academic teaching hospitals or MATHs. Funding of £2.4 million has been made available to date for that purpose. The accreditation programme will formalise standard setting and measurement across many aspects of a hospitals' operations. The focus of the standards is on the patient as he or she moves through an episode of care in the hospital. Standards have now been developed around five interrelated functional areas applicable to each participating hospital: patient service groupings, leadership and partnership, information management, environment management and human resource management.
Development work on the accreditation scheme is now complete. Irish standards have been drafted, field-tested and approved by the participating hospitals and the national steering group. These standards have also been validated internationally by the International Society for Quality in Healthcare. A team of Irish surveyors has been assembled and trained. The scheme will operate initially in the eight MATHs hospitals. The first hospital survey is planned for early 2002, with the remaining seven hospitals to be surveyed in the following six months.
I am bringing proposals to Government with a view to establishing an accreditation body on a formal basis. In the interim, an implementation steering group or ISG has been established to roll-out the scheme to the participating hospitals.
