Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

The Government has already undertaken specific investment measures to provide new and improved accident and emergency departments in hospitals, to increase the number of emergency medicine consultants and to provide additional funding to move patients from the acute hospital system to a more appropriate care setting. The Government will continue to focus on the measures required to improve the delivery of accident and emergency services, recognising that we must not look at accident and emergency departments alone to find solutions. We must also develop primary care, sub-acute care and community care so that patients can be treated in the most appropriate setting.

The report of the national task force on medical staffing — the Hanly report — emphasised the importance of ensuring that we treat emergency or life-threatening conditions at the most appropriate location. Treatment should commence at the scene, typically by trained ambulance personnel, and the patient should then be taken to the nearest hospital that is best equipped to meet his or her needs.

The Hanly report also pointed to the need for further development of ambulance services, increases in the number of acute beds and a reorganisation and resourcing of primary care so that patients, wherever they live, have equitable and rapid access to high quality emergency care.

The Hanly report is a significant contribution to the development of acute hospital services and I have asked the National Hospitals Office to progress its recommendations accordingly.

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