Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Deputy Adams is well aware that the restructuring of health services is one of the fundamental priorities of the Government. That is not an easy task. I have been at a number of hospitals recently, speaking to nurses, patients and other personnel working on the front line. I know exactly what the Deputy is talking about. I have been to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda over the years on many occasions and people working on the front line there have always told me about the pressure due to the throughput in that hospital. The Deputy is well aware of that, as one of the Deputies up there.

The Minister for Health has set up a special delivery unit which has carried out an assessment of the situation as of October 2011, and the number of patients on waiting lists and on trolleys is greater than we would like at this stage. The special delivery unit has now made recommendations to hospital management on things they can do now which will have an impact on the situation.

HIQA received a letter last Friday about the emergency department at Drogheda and it will respond to the authors of that letter on the issues raised. The authority is engaging at the moment with the HSE north east on quality and safety issues, and its officials will soon discuss concerns raised about the emergency department with the HSE through this process. Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda is currently implementing a two-pronged approach to the management of overcrowding in the emergency department. First, it is working closely with the recently established special delivery unit to achieve capacity planning throughout the hospital, to make the best of the facilities there. Second, it is actively engaged in the implementation of the HSE's national clinical care programmes, which will focus on extending the hospital's acute medical assessment unit facility.

The Minister for Health is quite well aware of the concerns the Deputy has raised here, which apply in many hospitals. That is why the special delivery unit was set up; to make an immediate impact on the recommendations it has made. I hope that the management in hospitals will react positively to suggestions that can happen now. However, there is a much bigger question of shifting the structure of the delivery of health services nationally, and that will not happen between now and the end of the year.

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