Vol. 568 No. 1
561 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children the health boards which have made returns on information collected in the maternity and infant care scheme for 2001 and 2002; and if he is satisfied that these reports are adequate. [15580/03]
563 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children if his Department has expressed concern regarding the information collected in the maternity and infant care scheme; and if his Department has proposed a new shorter form for health boards to improve untimely returns. [15582/03]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 561 and 563 together.
In accordance with recommendation 6.8 (e) of the report of the maternity and infant care scheme review group, health boards are obliged to extract statistical data from GP claim forms and submit this to the Department on a timely basis.
It has come to my Department's attention that compiling these statistics is a time-consuming task for the boards. The most recent year for which we have received completed statistics from all boards is 1997. Consequently, the uptake for several boards has been estimated since then. In order to correct this, in March of this year my Department circulated a revised and shortened form to all health boards, the HSEA and the Health Boards Executive for their observations. The responses received to date have been overwhelmingly positive. It is hoped to finalise and begin use of the new form shortly.
562 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children if his Department held discussion with the health boards regarding new national performance indicators for 75 key areas of health care; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15581/03]
The performance indicators to which the Deputy refers were developed conjointly by my Department and the health boards and signed off by the health board chief executive officers for use pri marily in relation to the monitoring and review of service plan delivery. While the performance indicators have been used for this purpose, all sides recognise that this is a developmental process. Further conjoint work is in train to better align the PIs with health strategy actions and address the quality of data required to enable even better assessment of the performance of health agencies in relation to service plan delivery.
Question No. 563 answered with Question No. 561.
