I propose to take Questions Nos. 27 and 102 together.
I am familiar with the approach being adopted by the Health Service Executive in seeking to improve safety and standards across the acute hospital network in the North East Region, having regard to the issues raised in the Teamwork Management Services Report — "Improving Safety and Achieving Better Standards — An Action Plan for Health Services in the North East".
The Teamwork Report included a number of recommendations to improve patient care in the region. It particularly highlighted the need to develop a high quality, responsive emergency and planned service, in line with international standards. It recommended that there be one major regional hospital in the North East, supported by the five existing local hospitals including Our Lady's Hospital, Navan. The new hospital is to provide emergency and trauma services on a 24 hour basis and also provide planned specialist procedures that are complex and require the facilities of a large regional hospital.
The HSE has given me an assurance that, in progressing the implementation of this report, there will be no discontinuation of existing services until suitable alternative arrangements have been put in place.
The hospital reconfiguration process is being overseen by the HSE Steering Group which is leading the project. No decision has been made to date on the location of the new hospital. A sub-committee of the Steering Group has been established to progress the issue of site selection. A tender for consultancy is to be awarded shortly for an independent site location study. The study will take account of various criteria including demographics, access, planning and development considerations and interdependencies.
The first step in the development of a fully integrated regional health service is to ensure that the people of the North East have local access to both routine planned care and immediate life saving emergency care. Over the next few years, in preparation for all acute emergency in-patient care and complex planned care being provided at a regional centre, services at the existing five hospitals will continue to be improved.