Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

As I said earlier on Question Time, last night's programme showed the distress of patients and their families and the conditions and waiting times in some of our accident and emergency departments. That is an issue I have addressed in the House several times over the winter. We understand the distress. That is why the Health Service Executive is determined to reduce unacceptably long waiting times for patients and all the other issues to which I referred earlier. No stone is left unturned to address problems where they occur. All the necessary funding is being made available. Deputy Kenny is correct in that over a number of years we have put in the resources which effectively have been for extra staff. The HSE is bringing management attention to this as never before. The accident and emergency action group has been working since the HSE was formed early last year and will support the commitment of doctors, nurses and other staff to continually improve patient care. It ensures that in many of our hospitals those departments are working well. We have 53 acute hospitals, with 35 accident and emergency units, of which about 13 are recognised to have a problem. The other two thirds are working effectively and well. There are many such examples across the country. The task is to bring the remainder into line.

The "Prime Time Investigates" programme also carried an interview with Sir George Alberti about the accident and emergency area reforms in Britain, reforms which we have been carrying out for several years. He said it is important there is faster access to senior decision makers and consultants for extended periods of the day, a vital reform I have spelt out in the Dáil many times. It is not that individual consultants in accident and emergency and elsewhere do not work long hours, but the problem is they are not scheduled to be routinely available to patients at all times when needed. That is the issue that arises. The accident and emergency task force has identified practical actions being implemented to get faster access to patients by consultants. Such actions have been suggested by consultants themselves on the task force, and we are working with the individuals to move that forward.

Many other issues are involved. Some 3 million people use our 53 hospitals annually on an inpatient and outpatient basis. Some 1.3 million people — 3,000 per day — use the accident and emergency services annually. That figure has risen substantially, by 10% during the past year alone, so people are using the accident and emergency services in increasing numbers. That increase of 10% is the biggest for a number of years, so it is a myth that people are not using the services.

Many other issues have been highlighted. The two programmes shown last night, "Prime Time" and "Questions and Answers" must be considered together. Nothing was said in them which I have not said several times before, such as how we avoid hospital admissions, enhanced out-of-hours GP services, greater GP access to diagnostics, rapid access to clinics, increased community intervention time, primary care teams, the chronic illness management programmes and home care packages.

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