Mr. Tony O'Brien:

I will respond to the issues Senator van Turnhout raised. I do not wish to address the specific circumstances, which I understand are naturally personally upsetting. The measures the Minister mentioned around CITs, nurse prescribing and so on are designed to support both end-of-life care if that is in a nursing home situation but also care more generally. Clearly there is generally nothing to be gained from patients being moved from nursing homes to acute hospitals if the care they require can be provided in that particular setting.

As Deputy Fitzpatrick knows, I have some local affinity with the Louth County Hospital. Egress is the key issue for Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. There are 15 beds being worked through to support egress from the hospital. There are 24 private beds coming on stream at the end of this month, with our social care and hospital division working collaboratively with a private provider to skill up nurses for that nursing home given that it will be taking patients of slightly higher acuity than originally intended.

Measures are under way to facilitate the repatriation back to Cavan of trauma patients who were referred in from Cavan but have ongoing medical needs. A recruitment campaign is under way. This week CIT was introduced to augment the rapid response teams.

The hospital closest to where I live is Louth County Hospital. I absolutely do not believe the emergency department should be restored there for many of the reasons the Minister has alluded to. The population of County Louth needs one single emergency department team to provide the quality of care it needs. Clearly that team needs to be able to operate in better conditions than it currently does.

I welcome the Deputy's support for the minor injuries unit. It may need to have more people from the area using it when they can as opposed to travelling to Drogheda, and we are certainly looking at how we can market the MIU in Louth County Hospital more effectively.

Deputy Ó Caoláin used the phrase "nothing to be proud of in the health service". While there are many things not to be proud of, I am absolutely proud of the many men and women who work in the health service and have continued to do their very best for patients in the most difficult of circumstances and who continue to do so.

I will ask Dr. Henry to respond to the issue about the nine hours.