Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 March 2017
598. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health when the bed capacity review is starting or if it has started; the detail of its terms of reference; the stakeholders that have been consulted; if they will be liaised with during the review; and if the review will be directed to have a particular model of care in mind in making any recommendations of bed capacity. [11804/17]
View answerMy Department has commenced a capacity review in line with the commitment in the Programme for a Partnership Government. I would like to assure the Deputy that this is a priority action for me and my Department.
As I have previously advised, my intention is that the review will have a wider scope than previous exercises and will examine key elements of primary and community care infrastructure in addition to hospital facilities.
Assessing capacity requirements is a complex task and cannot be divorced from considerations on the underlying model of care we want to develop for the Irish health service. It is widely acknowledged that primary care can provide more appropriate and effective management and treatment of some illnesses and conditions, especially chronic diseases. Similarly, the availability of non-acute beds and services in the community can mitigate the need for acute hospital admission, or facilitate earlier discharge. These factors directly contribute to the demands on the acute hospital system. It is important that it is within this context that the review is undertaken.
Draft terms of reference for the review have been developed. These are as follows:
- To consider current capacity in the health system and benchmark with international comparators;
- to determine drivers of future demand for healthcare including demographic and epidemiological trends;
- to analyse how reforms to the model of care will impact on future capacity requirements across the system; and
- to provide an overall assessment of current and future capacity requirements for each year for the period 2017-2030.
The review is being led by my Department and will be overseen by a Steering Group. The Steering Group is now in place and includes senior officials from my Department and the Departments of the Taoiseach and Public Expenditure and Reform, the HSE, and experts with a clinical and academic background. It will hold its first meeting this month, at which I expect it to consider the terms of reference for the review and to begin discussions on issues such as the review process, external expertise requirements and stakeholder consultations.
An independent peer group of international health experts will also be established to review and validate the review methodology and findings.
It is essential that this review is progressed sufficiently to enable it to feed into the mid-term review of the capital programme, which will take place later in the year. While the review will consider capacity requirements over the next decade or so, I am also anxious that it have a short-term focus and determine how capital investment over the coming years can be best targeted, given the current pressures being experienced within our hospital services.
The mechanisms for the review are now in place, and I look forward to the emerging findings later in the year.
