Seán Sherlock
Question:807. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Health if a decision has been made on the location for a new elective hospital in the South South West Hospital Group. [11717/22]
View answerTuesday, 1 March 2022
Questions (807)
Written answers
In December 2021 the Government agreed, subject to the necessary approvals and requirements under the Public Spending Code being met, a new National Elective Ambulatory Care Strategy. The development of additional capacity will be provided through dedicated, standalone Elective Hospitals in Cork, Galway and Dublin. The locations chosen will allow for new facilities of a size and scale to implement an elective care programme that will tackle waiting lists on a national basis. This means that the new facilities will be designed to maximise their capacity and in doing so will operate to cover as a wide catchment area as possible, extending beyond existing and future health areas.
The “Elective Hospitals Oversight Group”, under the joint governance of the Department of Health and Health Service Executive, has been guiding the development of the elective hospital proposals, following the process outlined in the updated Public Spending Code. Following the approval of the new National Elective Ambulatory Care Strategy, Programme level and Project level Preliminary Business Cases for the three locations are being finalised for consideration and review by my Department. If approved internally, the Business Cases will be submitted to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform’s recently introduced PSC External Assurance Process (EAP) and Major Projects Evaluation after which further memoranda for Government could then be brought forward. While it is difficult to be absolute about timelines, following these assurance steps I am hopeful we could proceed to approval-in-principle (Gate 1 of the Public Spending Code) in the coming period ahead.