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

The House is aware that the Government is pursuing an ambitious programme of reform for our health sector, including in social care and care for older people. We want a health service that is patient-centred, whether that patient is young or old. We want a health service that delivers care as close to home as possible in order that older people will be able to live in their homes where they feel safe and comfortable for as long as possible, rather than going into long-stay nursing homes, regardless of how nice they might be. There is a no substitute for the autonomy people feel in their house.

We want a safe health service, focused on clinical effectiveness, whereby everyone, including older people, receives safe, timely and efficient care and treatment. These reforms have delivered. The numbers of patients waiting on trolleys have been greatly reduced, which benefits everyone, especially older people. Under the previous Government's reign, patients often spent up to four days on a trolley. There are still too many people who have to spend time on trolleys and we are working hard to address that. I thank all the people who work in our health service for the fantastic job they are doing despite dwindling budgets and dwindling staff numbers.

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