Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

I will conclude. The entire reply will be included in the Official Report and will be supplied to Deputy Nulty. I again congratulate the Deputy on his election.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

In the absence of real and sustained change in how the existing capacity is managed, additional beds will be quickly absorbed without any net gain for patients. The aim of the SDU is to unblock access to acute services by improving the flow of patients through the system. The SDU's initial focus is on emergency departments and it will work to support hospitals in addressing excessive waiting times for admission to hospital.

As part of the process of forming the overall picture of the emergency departments situation nationally, the SDU has identified 15 hospitals, which between them account for 80% of the trolley wait problem in the hospital system and of which Connolly Hospital is one. Liaison officers from the SDU are working proactively to support these sites including Connolly Hospital.

The Minister also has agreed that some additional funding may be provided, on a strictly once-off basis, based on specific proposals from the hospitals to reduce waiting times. Adherence to the agreed criteria will be closely monitored by the SDU. The SDU is currently examining a plan for some additional funding for Connolly Hospital. Where this type of support has been provided elsewhere it has been on the strict understanding that it will only be released to hospitals where the specific performance measures and specified conditions have been met.

The conditions and performance measures which hospitals must meet are as follows: for the remainder of the year and throughout January 2012, no patient will wait more than 23 hours in the hospital's emergency department. In addition, the trolley wait target must be maintained at least 70% below the maximum daily trolley count since January 2010. Other conditions or performance measures include seven-day ward discharge rounds, achievement of all acute medicine programme milestones and implementation of approved measures to stream elderly patients effectively. For the plan from Connolly Hospital to be seriously considered, it must convince the SDU that hospital management, by which I also mean clinical management, is fully signed up to the kind of performance measures needed to deliver real change.

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