James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When I was in opposition, I stated that my absolute priority would be to reduce the number of patients on trolleys. When the Government came into power, I reiterated that position. Patients deserve world-class health facilities in which they are not left suffering on waiting lists or on trolleys in overcrowded hospitals. I cannot deliver the type of health system patients deserve in sub-standard accident and emergency facilities operating from converted pharmacies or where medical assessment units are operating out of reconverted laundries and portakabins. That is the situation in Kilkenny and Wexford. I cannot continue to make the progress required in health if I tolerate such poor standards. I am taking a hands-on approach, as I promised in Opposition and on taking office, and delivering results for patients, which include 20,352 fewer patients on trolleys in 2012 than in 2011, a reduction of almost 24%. By the end of December 2012, the number of adults having to wait more than nine months for inpatient and day-case surgery was down to 86 from a total of 3,706 in December 2011, a reduction of 98%. The number of children waiting more than 20 weeks for inpatient or day-case surgery was down to 89 from 1,759 in December 2011, a 95% reduction. The number of patients waiting more than 13 weeks for routine endoscopy procedures went down from 4,590 in December 2011 to 36 at the end of 2012, a 99% reduction.

For the first time in the history of the State, we have counted the true number of people waiting on outpatient lists, of whom there are in the region of 380,000, a daunting figure. Many people have been waiting for years. We have undertaken that by the end of this year, no one will wait longer than 12 months for an outpatient appointment. Some 16,000 people have been waiting longer than four years. For the first time, we will have real facts and figures which are verifiable. We do not dispute the morning trolley count with the INMO; we have a joint figure. These figures can be checked and are worth repeating. There has been a reduction of 24% in the number of people on trolleys, of 98% in the number of people waiting nine months or longer for inpatient treatment and of 95% in the number of children waiting more than 20 weeks.

I visited Wexford's emergency department, as I visited nearly every such department in the State, and I was taken aback by what I saw. There were overcrowded, cramped conditions with five cubicles and patients on full display on trolleys in the central area of what was a converted pharmacy. The new Wexford project will address these issues by providing 17 treatment bays and a separate treatment area for children. Approximately 40,000 attendances take place at that emergency department per annum. The new Kilkenny project comprises an emergency department, a medical assessment unit and a day services unit, including endoscopy, construction of which has started. This is the first medical assessment unit in the country introducing a new way to treat patients in a more civilised fashion, which also takes a great deal of pressure off the emergency department. The real point is that both projects were approved for inclusion in the HSE capital programme in 2006 and have been included in all of the HSE's multi-annual capital plans ever since.

As the House will be aware, one of the issues for many years concerns capacity issues in accident and emergency departments. Since 2006, capital funding has been made available for an accident and emergency department initiative to provide admission managers and a series of medical assessment units to relieve the pressure on accident and emergency departments. Continuing to address these capacity issues has always been a fundamental aspect of the HSE's capital plans. The 2008 capital plan contained funding to complete developments under way, deliver new accident and emergency departments and upgrade and extend existing departments. The Wexford and Kilkenny projects were part of this initiative.

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