Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I will take this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney.

My understanding is that the issues raised by the clinician in question relate in the main to the capacity of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, to manage the regional emergency workload within existing resources. The issues raised were brought directly to the attention of the medical board of the hospital, the Health Service Executive and the Minister. The Department raised the issue with the National Hospitals Office of the HSE and asked that the matter be followed up as a matter of urgency with the HSE north east which has operational responsibility for the provision of hospital services in the region.

The number of patients reporting to the accident and emergency department of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital has increased in recent days and this has placed additional pressure on its capacity. The HSE is working to ensure all possible measures are taken to alleviate the difficulty and to ensure the waiting time for patients is kept to a minimum. The measures being put in place include increased ward rounds by consultants, and liaison with other hospitals to effect transfers, where appropriate. Discussions are also taking place with a view to placing into more appropriate care settings patients whose acute phase of treatment has finished.

In line with a commitment to improve the overall capacity and resources at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, the HSE advises that construction of a new accident and emergency department and additional clinical facilities commenced at the end of January this year at a cost of more than €11 million. This project will provide for an accident and emergency unit on the ground floor encompassing some 1,300 sq. m of space with additional clinical facilities proposed for the upper floors. This project will result in an almost 300% increase in the existing space available for the Department. The HSE advises that the new emergency department is scheduled to be operational by the end of the year with 19 adult trolleys and six paediatric beds. The HSE is also working to ensure that the hospital has the required capacity in readiness for the overall reconfiguration in the north-east area.

The Teamwork Management Services Limited report entitled, Improving Safety and Achieving Better Standards, which was prepared for the HSE found that the present system in the north east, whereby five local hospitals deliver acute care to a relatively small population, is exposing patients to increased risks. The report recommended a three-strand action plan as follows: the development of a new regional acute hospital; the development of local services, with the existing five hospitals and primary and community care providers playing central roles; and the development of a series of clinical networks to bind local and regional services around the needs of patients, including networks for emergency care, surgery and critical care.

The hospital reconfiguration process is being overseen by the HSE steering group. Following a tendering process, the HSE appointed a firm of consultants to carry out an independent site location study for the new regional hospital. The Department has been advised by the HSE that it anticipates that the consultants' report will be completed in February. The report will then be considered by the board of the HSE.

The first priority in the development of a fully integrated regional health service is to ensure that the people of the north east have local access to both routine planned care and immediate life-saving emergency care. Over the next few years, in preparation for all acute emergency inpatient care and complex planned care being provided at a regional centre, the existing five hospitals will continue to provide services which meet the majority of health needs of the community.

The HSE has given an assurance that in progressing the implementation of the Teamwork report, there will be no discontinuation of existing services until suitable alternative arrangements have been put in place.

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