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

I am aware that this matter is of considerable concern to the Minister of State, Deputy Fergus O'Dowd, and to Deputy Nash and our colleague, Deputy Peter Fitzpatrick. We have major reforms under way which are yielding results. I thank the front-line staff and management for implementing those reforms with 10% fewer staff, a 20% reduction in budget and an 8% growth in the population. Despite these pressures, we are still managing to improve the service and will continue to do so. Ultimately, however, reforms of the current system can only go so far, which is why I will shortly be bringing forward a White Paper on universal health insurance.

Regarding the fair deal scheme, it is important to note that it operates in chronological order, with people in the community coming on stream first followed by people in hospital, or vice versa. Early last year we opened up a number of long-term care beds, many of which went to people in the community. As such, they did not alleviate the situation in hospitals. I am in ongoing discussions with the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch on this issue. Patients who require long-term care are, by definition, very ill and, in many cases, elderly. As Minister for Health and as a doctor, my view is that those who are most acutely in need, namely, the people who are acutely ill in casualty, must be prioritised. If that means we sometimes have to break the chronological order under the fair deal scheme, then it will be done because it is the fair thing to do. I do not agree that we should dispense entirely with the chronological order, but when we experience surges such as we have seen at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, we must take action to protect those who are most vulnerable and most at risk. Those are the patients lying on trolleys in our emergency departments.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and the staff of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital for the great work they are doing, as well as the staff right across the health system who have implemented major improvements despite the lack of resources they face.

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