Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The response from the hospital at the time was that it was down to a lack of beds. It has a plan for a 72-bed unit which is currently going through the system and will help resolve the situation.

Can I focus again on the headline of unscheduled care activity and the figures in relation to 75-year-olds and older? There is an increase of 14.1% on the same period in 2019. Emergency department admissions of 75-year-olds and older again up 10.1% on the same period in 2019. What is happening there? Is this due to the post Covid-19 situation with older people are getting more infections? For those aged 75 and older it normally means a longer stay in hospital. That is posing a challenge for the system. Pathways were spearheaded by Beaumont Hospital. We all accept the number of hours it is saving and it has saved people from having to go through the emergency department and so on. It seems to be a no-brainer that something like that would be replicated right across not only Dublin but across the State. Could the witnesses explain those figures and what is happening there as they are stark and are big numbers?