Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

The HSE recently published the emergency department task force report. The infrastructural deficits identified in the seven hospitals referred to are being addressed through a combination of interim and long-term capital improvements and refurbishment.

The task force recommends that the issues in emergency departments be examined on a whole-hospital and whole-system basis. It identifies the requirement for hospital-specific initiatives as well as the development of national responses in regard to key structural issues. A key requirement is the development of strong internal management control processes at hospital and community levels to ensure capacity is fully optimised and that measures designed to unlock capacity are supported by strong controls that enable appropriate balancing between emergency and elective workloads.

My Department is assured by the HSE that a series of additional measures are being put in place to ensure the delivery of an improved service for patients and to reduce pressure on accident and emergency departments. These include a series of hospital avoidance measures including the following: the expansion of the hospital in the home scheme to the Dublin academic teaching hospitals; the development of community intervention teams; the roll-out of more primary care teams; the expansion of out-of-hours GP services and the expansion of community diagnostic services. Measures being taken to improve and optimise acute hospital capacity and capability include the following: seven new community nursing units in Dublin, additional long-stay beds outside Dublin, development of admission lounges, acute medical assessment units at Navan and Naas, acute medical admission units at Beaumont, Sligo and Tallaght and the development of enhanced diagnostic capability in hospitals.

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