Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Chair and those who sent in those messages that this is all about patient safety. Patient dignity is critical, as well as patient safety. As I know from visiting many emergency departments and as our two doctors here know better than I, in an emergency department that is overcrowded it can be very difficult for patients to get the dignity they should and must have. That applies in UHL and in many emergency departments where there is overcrowding. Of paramount importance is patient safety. The clinical advice I have, based on research from abroad - if the two doctors with us want to contribute, they should - is that patients on trolleys pose a patient safety risk, particularly for older patients. As an experienced nurse in University Hospital Galway said to me, the corridor is an issue because it is bright and noisy. People need to rest, rehydrate and get treatment. A corridor is not a suitable place and not in line with patient safety. Everything we are doing is about reducing the number of patients on trolleys.

What we want to see in Limerick is exactly what has been achieved in Waterford, Portlaoise and Tullamore and is being achieved in more and more hospitals around the country, many of which are seeing big reductions in the number of patients on trolleys and some of which have brought that down to zero. I have said from day one, the answer consists of two things: capacity and reform. The bit everyone focuses on is capacity and the first time I visited UHL as Minister, the senior team in UHL rightly put it up to me and the Government by saying they needed more investment, beds, doctors, nurses, health and social care professionals, community-based teams, injury units and pathways other than coming into the ED.