Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the main Opposition party, Fine Gael, for tabling this motion, which is good. The Minister has tabled an amendment, as is traditional, which goes some way towards recognising the concerns shared by all Members about conditions in accident and emergency units. In this city the Mater Misericordiae Hospital and the Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown, are frequented by my constituents and I am aware of the conditions that obtain in each of these. In one, conditions are very difficult and in the other, conditions are excellent.

The Tánaiste has clearly demonstrated her commitment to improving the delivery of accident and emergency services. From the time of her appointment she has said that this is the top issue she has to tackle in the Department. It is a priority for her and for the Government. It will take time for the measures in the ten-point plan to be fully implemented. I wish to make clear that the ten-point plan is a beginning, not an end. The funding provided for it is additional to the substantial and growing resources for hospitals, long-term care and primary care. The Health Service Executive is working to deliver these measures and on additional actions by hospitals to ensure that the investment produces sustainable solutions. Work is under way to achieve a measurable effect in improving patients' experience of accident and emergency departments.

The Minister of State at the Department Of Health and Children, Deputy Tim O'Malley, provided details of the progress being made on the ten-point action plan. A total of 64 patients from hospitals in the eastern region and 23 patients in the Cork region have been discharged as a result of the intermediate beds being provided in private nursing homes. Additional home care packages have been provided, resulting in 51 patients being discharged from acute hospitals in the eastern region and discharge arrangements are being finalised for a further 45 patients. References have been made to experiences of individual patients in their encounters with the acute hospital system, but more than 100 individual patients so far have benefited from the specific actions being taken to free up acute beds. These patients have returned home or have been placed in a more appropriate care setting.

Capital investment in acute hospitals is resulting in modern accident and emergency departments being made available to treat patients. Only this week the Tánaiste officially opened the new accident and emergency department at Cork University Hospital. Not long ago, as Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, I had the pleasure of officially opening the new hospital block and accident and emergency department at Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown.

Yesterday evening there was an article in the Evening Herald containing a number of allegations about conditions at that accident and emergency unit. Management in the HSE northern area, wrote to the editor of the Evening Herald pointing out the inaccuracies in the article. One must be careful when making allegations about these matters. I know Members of the House have not abused their privilege in the course of this debate — far from it — but it is sad that an article appears in an important newspaper, which has a substantial circulation in the Dublin area, suggesting that conditions are not as they should be in a particular accident and emergency unit. This article was published yesterday and was associated with a photograph of a local Fine Gael representative in a parallel article.

Management had to write to the HSE pointing out that the article contained the wrong name of the hospital and the wrong date for the opening of the accident and emergency unit, and comments regarding overcrowding in the accident and emergency department were completely unfounded. That was frustrating and insulting to the emergency department personnel, whom I salute. Since the opening of this unit they have done a fabulous job in providing the best accident and emergency unit in the Dublin area. With the assistance of management, they are to a significant degree managing waiting times. The average waiting times in that hospital are among the lowest in the eastern region. Individual cases were mentioned in the article upon which we cannot comment, but one of the cases mentioned was not treated in the accident and emergency department on or around the date stated in the article.

On the dates referred to in the article, the average waiting time on 5 May, from registration to triage was ten minutes and from triage to a doctor, two hours and 14 minutes, while the average waiting time to admission was seven hours and 50 minutes. They are the facts. The average waiting times on the weekend of 7 and 8 May were, from registration to triage, 12 minutes and from triage to doctor, two hours and 50 minutes, while the average wait time to admission was eight hours and 40 minutes. It is accepted that cardiac patients may require a telemetry bed, which is a specialised procedure and can add to wait times. A chest pain observation unit will be commissioned in the emergency department in July 2005, which will ensure that patients presenting with chest pain will be treated in a dedicated facility and within a shorter timeframe.

Contrary to what was suggested in the article, there are no new wards lying unused in the hospital. It is important newspapers check their facts before printing articles about conditions in accident and emergency units. I do not take from any Member of the House who has made comments this evening, but the allegations in that article about a fine hospital where there is a new accident and emergency unit were wrong.

See this speech in context