Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

We did not measure anything six years ago, so we did not how we were doing. Today we know 1.3 million people attend accident and emergency departments and that 94% of them are dealt with in six hours. We know that 54% of people who attend accident and emergency departments must wait more than six hours to be admitted. I accept that is too long but we never had targets before. In fact, we started with 24 hour targets which went down to 12 hour targets.

I agree it is a hospital wide issue. In the case of some hospitals, escalation policy needs to be implemented as it is in every good hospital in the world. If one reads the British newspapers, one will read about the challenges they face with their accident and emergency departments where escalation policies are implemented. We also need to look at what is happening in those particular hospitals. We now have the fair deal scheme which is processed in two weeks in some parts of the country but, unfortunately, in other parts, it is taking somewhat longer and that is placing an undue burden on Beamont Hospital, in particular, and, to a lesser extent, on the Mater Hospital.

Under HealthStat, which I am sure the Deputy reads, we need to look at the mix of public-private activity in these hospitals. I am not satisfied that there is an appropriate mix in accordance with the consultant contract. We need to address that also. I am confident the clinical directors who have been appointed under the new contract and who are working with Dr. Barry White on new clinical pathways for patients will help to greatly alleviate this further this year.

In more than 20 hospitals, we do not generally have any issues with accident and emergency. We have issues in six or seven hospitals which are now the focus of considerable attention from the HSE.

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