Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

I put it to the Minister that on 29 March 2006 she issued a statement declaring accident and emergency departments to be a national emergency. In 2007 she stated that the HSE said no patient should be waiting more than 24 hours in any accident and emergency unit for admission to a ward and by next year the target is to be a maximum of six hours. The HSE also stated its aim is that no accident and emergency unite should have more than ten patients waiting for admission to a ward. She has again given us a beautiful flow of rhetoric. The reality is totally different. How, with 52 fewer beds, will Beaumont achieve the target she has outlined to us? How will other hospitals throughout the country achieve their targets?

The Minister referred to the fair deal and the fact that people will be able to leave hospital more easily. I spoke to a social worker who is working in another large Dublin hospital last week who told me that most of her day is now spent trying to deal with the financial assessments of the fair deal to get elderly patients who are ready to be discharged out of hospital . What is the Minister going to do to ensure that the financial assessment element of the fair deal does not keep people in hospital unnecessarily? I am told that nursing homes will not take them until it is certain they will qualify.

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