Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Regarding specific services in any hospital, be it Ennis or anywhere else, it is a matter for the national service plan, which will shortly be published but has not been brought to the Government yet, and the capital plan, which we will publish. However, I will ask officials to get an update for the Deputy on haemodialysis in Ennis. Regarding University Hospital Limerick, I have a few comments. I fully acknowledge the ongoing distress caused to patients and our healthcare professionals working in that environment.

The solution is not just capacity. For far too long in this country, we listened to individual hospitals that were under pressure say there was nothing they could do about this issue and that the Government just needed to provide them with more staff, beds or other resources. That is absolutely not the entire answer. We must continue to insist on reform within the hospitals. When I met the team from University Hospital Limerick, it quite rightly put the challenge to me and the rest of the Government, saying it needed more staff, beds, non-hospital pathways and other things, but it is fair to say we have responded to that. An additional 1,100 staff have been working in UHL in the lifetime of this Government, believe it or not. The number has risen from 2,800 to 3,900 – a 40% increase in just three and half years, which is huge. The team asked for more beds. It already has 98 more beds and, as has been referred to, there are to be another 192. The first block is under construction and enabling works are being carried out for the second.

With regard to responding to the ask for resources, the injury unit in Ennis opened up in 2022. It is one of the six sites of the surgical hubs. It is fair to say that, in response to the correct demand for more healthcare capacity in the region, not just in UHL, and bearing in mind that there has been a huge upgrade at Croom in terms of orthopaedics, the Government has invested at an unprecedented level in beds, staff and injury units. It has done so at Croom, which has done fantastic work.

It is important to state that, to the great credit of healthcare workers in the mid-west, waiting lists are getting shorter rapidly. We do not talk about that because we are focused on what we can all see, which are the emergency department and the unacceptable situation therein, but we must give credit to the healthcare workers for bringing down the waiting list.

I hope I have addressed the members’ various questions on capacity. On reform, one of the most important things to reduce the number of patients on trolleys is weekend discharge or seven-days-per-week discharge. UHL has the second worst weekend discharge rate of any hospital in the country, in spite of its having had the second biggest increase in staff of any hospital in the country. My information is probably a year old. Certainly as of last year, UHL had more ED consultants than any other hospital in the country. Therefore, in spite of its having had a vast increase in resources, it is not doing what it needs to do in terms of patient flow that other hospitals are doing. It is doing some of it but by no means is it where it needs to be. Therefore, my message – the Government’s message is very clear – is that we have accepted the demand for capacity and are investing in that. This must be reciprocated with senior decision-makers on site at the weekends and weekend discharge. I am referring not only to the hospital but also to the community care services.