2013 Service Plan for the Galway and Roscommon University Hospital Group launched

The 2013 Service Plan for the Galway and Roscommon University Hospital Group was launched at a meeting of the Regional Health Forum in Galway this afternoon, Thursday 28 February.
 
Mr Bill Maher, CEO of the Group outlined the key points of the plan. He said, “The Galway and Roscommon University Hospital Group is committed to supporting the Programme for Government change agenda which will bring about significant changes to the way health services are managed and delivered this year and into the future.
 
“Our focus for this year is to build on the firm foundations laid in 2012 in terms of service delivery, reducing waiting times, establishing sound governance arrangements and improving the patient experience.
 
“Our priorities in 2013 are to improve access to services for patients and this means working on admission times from the Emergency Departments, maintaining the inpatients waiting time targets (which includes a reduction to 8 months wait time for adults) and meeting the Department of Health’s Special Delivery Unit outpatient waiting time target which is that no patient should wait longer than 12 months by the end of November.
 
“We plan to build on the progress made in 2012 by maximising all the resources of the Group and by removing duplication of services, if necessary. We will look to fully implement the Small Hospitals Framework and play to the strengths of each of the hospitals in the Group. In this way we can allow each hospital to specialise in certain services and by removing duplication of services, we can keep costs down which will be essential in the current economic climate.
 
“Our budget for this year is €318.5m which means that we are in an improved financial position at the start of the year due to an increase of €20.9m on last year’s budget (€297.6m). However we are forecasting that our expenditure will be €344.5m which leaves us with a financial challenge of €26m. We plan to address this challenge through other sources of funding for example deferring procurement of medical equipment and income from private patients once legislation has been introduced to allow us to invoice private patients in public beds. This will leave a balance of €16m which will be met through cost containment measures.
 
The numbers of patients that we are funded to treat in 2013 are as follows:
 

Group Activity

Target for 2013

Services Delivered in 2012

Inpatients       

50,953

51,024

Day Cases 

90,377

101,086

ED Presentations

89,784

87,763

Births

5,441

5,439

Outpatients   

291,532

286,966

Urgent Care Centre

5,440

5,940

 
 
“This year the Group will continue to develop its governance structures including a fully functional Board of Directors and an appropriate Governance Framework.  We will also hold a number of board meetings in public, providing real local accountability to the public we serve.
 
“We will also reflect the implementation of the National Clinical Programmes in all of our hospitals and the service efficiencies derived from the programmes. We will continue to develop our communications strategy and engage with all key partners and key stakeholders, particularly our staff across the Group and all the patients we serve.
 
“Our focus at all times is the patient and ensuring that as many services as possible are provided locally while also making sure that specialised care is provided in the most appropriate location. We now have a single Clinical Governance structure and we are implementing the HIQA Standards - For Safer Better Healthcare to ensure a high quality and safe service across all the hospitals in the Group.