HIQA has recently updated me of a revised timeline for completion of their final report regarding the review of hospital services in the Mid West region, which is now expected to be September 2025.
Overall, the HIQA work on the review of urgent and emergency healthcare services in the Mid West region has progressed very well and the workstreams undertaken by HIQA to inform the advice to me, as Minister, are complete. A critical dependency for completion of the advice and a final report from HIQA is the input from the national and regional demand and capacity projections being undertaken by the ESRI for the Department.
The first of these three ESRI reports, on projections of national demand and bed capacity requirements for public acute hospitals, was published on 28 May 2025. The second report, on future capacity requirements for GP services, was published on 18 June 2025. The third report, on older persons care, will be published shortly. The ESRI will also publish further regional analysis over the coming months.
HIQA have updated me that, given the ESRI regional capacity projections work will not be completed until later in the summer, this will impact on the timeframe for delivery of HIQA’s final report and advice.
The revised timeline for completion of the HIQA final report will therefore be September 2025, contingent on the completion of the ESRI reports within the expected timeframe. The final report will be published.
I look forward to receiving the advice from HIQA once this important work is completed.
A new senior programme manager was appointed in HIQA to coordinate the review. Otherwise, the review has been carried out by HIQA through reallocation of existing resources.
