From Department of Health
Published on
Last updated on
The Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD today welcomed government approval of Sláintecare’s National Elective Ambulatory Care Strategy, which will change the way in which day case, scheduled procedures, surgeries, scans and outpatient services can be better arranged to ensure greater capacity in the future and help to address waiting lists.
The development of scheduled procedure/ outpatient capacity will be provided through dedicated, standalone Elective Hospitals in Cork, Galway and Dublin. These elective hospitals will provide coverage for 60-70% of the overall population, catering for up to 940,000 procedures annually.
The Elective Hospitals will provide additional capacity and help address waiting lists, while being as flexible and adaptable as possible to facilitate a future phase, which would include some elective in-patient treatment. Day procedures offered in the first phase will include Gastrointestinal, Gynaecology, Opthalmology, and Orthopaedics.
Minister Donnelly said:
"The development of these three elective hospitals will provide a sustainable and strategic response to cater for the evolving healthcare needs, treatments, and practice for care of patients – delivering the right care, in the right place at the right time."
The development, construction, and operation of Elective Hospitals will be progressed in line with Public Spending Code requirements.
This model of care will be considered in conjunction with several other transformative initiatives across the Public Healthcare System and other strategic capital investment proposals in Cork, Galway, and Dublin over the medium to longer term.
The Cross Party Sláintecare Report in 2017 articulated a new vision for healthcare in Ireland, including the provision of elective only hospitals, providing protected capacity for elective care.
The provision of additional elective care delivery capability in Cork, Dublin and Galway is a stated government policy objective.
In 2019, the Sláintecare Programme Implementation Office established an “Elective Hospitals Oversight Group”, under the joint governance of the Health Service Executive, Department of Health and Sláintecare, to guide the development of the elective hospital proposals.
The Strategy for Elective Ambulatory Care represents a step-change in the ability of the national public hospital network to deliver high-quality and timely elective care services that will provide:
The development of three elective hospitals, in Cork, Galway, and Dublin, will provide coverage to 60-70% of the overall population (travel distance within 120km, or approximately 90 mins).
Some patients currently travel longer distances for some elective care procedures.
The proposed service model for elective services would be, initially, high volume, low complexity procedures, and a range of related diagnostic services. The range of specialties will account for approximately:
The procedures within scope and to be provided in each area will be subject to additional refinement following further local engagement with clinicians and hospital groups.
The provision of three Elective hospitals would cater for up to 940,000 procedures annually:
The development of three elective hospitals, as referenced in National development Plan 2021 – 2030, will require significant infrastructural investment and therefore the Oversight Group is following the process outlined in the updated Public Spending Code, setting out the value for money requirements for the evaluation, planning, and management of large public investment projects.
Preliminary Business Cases for each Elective hospitals are at an advanced stage of development and are expected to be submitted to the Department of Health in early 2022.
If technically compliant with the Spending Code requirements and approved, the preliminary business cases will be further reviewed by the Department of Expenditure and Reform.
Subject to all Public Spending Code requirements at Gate 1 being met, further Memoranda for Government seeking approval-in-principle to proceed to the next stage of the Spending Code could be brought forward in the near future.