James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

I am aware that Deputy Kelleher has claimed there may be some issues with trolley counts in some hospitals. I draw the Deputy's attention to the statement issued by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, acknowledging and confirming the reduction by 17% overall in the numbers of people on trolleys in accident and emergency departments in the first four months of 2012 compared with the first four months of 2011. This overall reduction reflects a 23% reduction in the Dublin area and a 13% reduction for the rest of the country. This follows from a 27% reduction nationally in 2011.

Reduction of trolley numbers was a key priority initiative for the special delivery unit, SDU, in my Department for 2011. Building on the achievements of 2011 and the first four months of 2012, the SDU will work with the National Treatment Purchase Fund, the HSE clinical programmes and hospitals to minimise patient waiting times in accident and emergency departments further. There are still too many people on trolleys but the next phase of work by the SDU will include the introduction of an unscheduled care target to be introduced in 2012 and a change of focus in accident and emergency departments to patient journey time monitoring, in addition to trolley waits, as part of the new national scorecard for measuring performance. The ultimate aim is to ensure 95% of all attendees at accident and emergency departments are discharged or admitted within six hours of registration and those who need to be admitted through the department wait no more than nine hours from registration.

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