Statement on HSE National Service Plan, 2010

8 February 2010

The Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney, T.D. today (Monday 8 February) announced her approval of the HSE National Service Plan 2010.

The Plan outlines how the HSE plans to deliver health and personal social services within its 2010 current budget of €14.069bn. It projects service activity levels for 2010 which are broadly in line with 2009 levels.

The Minister said “I welcome the fact that the Plan commits to treating people in a more effective way with no reduction in access to appropriate services. By reducing costs, and reforming the way services are provided, I am confident the HSE will deliver the services people expect and continue to improve health outcomes for the population.”

A target of €106m in non-pay savings has been set for the HSE in 2010. This is in addition to the continuation of measures that achieved savings of €280m in 2008 and €115m in 2009. The Minister said, “I believe that the savings target is certainly achievable without affecting client care in any way.”

“In relation to acute hospital services, the focus for 2010 will be on managing inpatient care activity levels, delivering a shift to care on a day case basis, where appropriate, and on performance improvements such as same day of surgery admission and minimising length of stay. There will be a particular focus on reducing the current variance across different hospitals for similar procedures”.

The Plan targets a reduction of 33,313 in emergency admissions targeted at those who are admitted for very short periods of time. The Minister said “This will be achieved through increasing access to the specialist skills and senior clinical decision making available in Medical Assessment Units, diagnostics and other ambulatory care services and by increasing access to diagnostics for at least 10,000 of those who, on an annual basis, are admitted only for that purpose”.

In line with the development of more detailed measures of activity, performance and patient experience by the HSE over recent years, there are further new, important measures being introduced this year, for example, in the areas of antibiotic use; primary care teams; waiting times for cancer treatment and for referrals for assessments upon reports of child abuse or neglect.

The Minister said, “I strongly believe that you can only manage what you measure. I have asked the HSE to focus on developing and reporting on these measures of patient experience, to enable us to see better the responsiveness of the health system, and to take actions to achieve the results we want.”

Under the provisions of the Health Act 2004, the Minister will now make arrangements for the approved Plan to be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas and the HSE will also publish the Plan on its website.

Because of the savings that are being made in both pay and non-pay costs, the Government has been able to make available additional resources to assist the HSE in responding to priority demographic and other needs and to support ongoing reform of the public health services.

These measures will allow for:

Further service levels outlined in the Plan include:

Cancer Control


Acute Hospitals
Emergency Departments
Primary Care
Children and Families
Older People
Disability Services
Mental Health
Other Services
New performance measures
The Plan also commits to the development and reporting of additional performance measures in 2010 including: