Fiona O'Malley (Dún Laoghaire, Progressive Democrats)

The patient experience we are most focusing on in the debate is that of accident and emergency. While it has been acknowledged by both the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, and Professor Drumm that conditions in some accident and emergency departments are unacceptable, both for patients and for staff, the difficulties in accident and emergency are symptomatic of wider problems in the hospital sector which need reform. In particular, it is about blockages in the system.

We all are aware of people who are not in a position to be discharged because they do not have either facilities in their homes or somebody to take care of them, and who occupy acute beds as a result. They must remain within the acute system because there is nowhere for them to go on leaving it. That is not an efficient use of acute services. That is why many care packages have been put together in the recent budget by the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children and this will be a good way of freeing up beds. The difficulty in accident and emergency is because there are so few beds to which people may move. We all know what the problems are and we must get rid of the difficulties that arise through these blockages.

When Professor Drumm was before the Joint Committee on Health and Children, we heard about individual instances in certain hospitals, Kilkenny particularly, where practice is good. We need to have an individual responsible who will deliver the change and who will manage the services of the hospital in a more efficient way, and we must learn from best practice.

See this speech in context