Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Nolan for raising this issue today. Galway University Hospital has approximately 700 beds and is a tertiary referral centre for the western region, as part of the south hospital group. Its emergency department has approximately 66,000 attendances annually. Like many other major emergency departments in the country, it has experienced an increase in activity over recent months. The HSE is working closely with the special delivery unit to better manage patient flow through the hospital, and this collaboration has reduced the overall number of patients awaiting admission from the emergency department by 2,038 when compared with 2011.

The HSE advises me that Galway University Hospital is approving and recruiting experienced general and paediatric nurses for its departments. A recent interview process resulted in the creation of a panel of 21 experienced staff, 11 of whom are approved to commence in the coming weeks in the emergency department. Last week a fourth advanced nurse practitioner was appointed for the emergency department, with a specific function in the management of minor injury treatment.

To reflect the central importance of patient experience, GUH has appointed a patient advice and liaison officer with the role in the emergency department of addressing the needs of patients and attempting to improve patients' experience as they wait for access to services. Staff members also receive mindfulness training to assist in their approach and management of their ongoing workload. All these initiatives are of benefit to the public, patients and the staff.

The hospital has carried out a feasibility study to examine the benefits of an internal reconfiguration project of the existing emergency department versus a new build solution. This was completed in line with the development control plan for the site and accepted by the HSE capital steering group on 19 October 2013, subject to a cost-benefit analysis being undertaken. This cost-benefit analysis is under consideration. Future plans for the ED will incorporate capacity to meet the requirements of the emergency medicine programme and include capacity to meet the requirement of any future reconfiguration of services across the group. The HSE has been engaging on a consistent basis with the main unions, principally the INMO and SIPTU, regarding the activity levels within the department and the capacity issues therein. As part of this, a number of initiatives are being implemented to improve the pathways of care, including the navigational hub and the early discharge programme. A specific pathway for frail elderly is also being considered.

It is becoming evident from the data that the rising number of patients over 75 who are attending and requiring admission is rising but as the Deputy rightly points out, any of these measures around patient flow, greater use of community beds and so on will only be stop-gap measures. It is a very old emergency department and the medium to long-term solution will have to be a rebuild so that it is fit for the purpose we would all intend.

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