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

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:"acknowledges:

— the difficulties which overcrowding in hospital emergency departments (EDs) causes for patients, their families and the staff who are doing their utmost to provide safe, quality care in very challenging circumstances;

— that the Government regards trolley waits of over nine hours as unacceptable and that optimum patient care and patient safety at all times remain a Government priority;

— the wide-ranging set of actions which are being put in place by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to achieve improvements in the delivery of emergency care; and

— the targeted, integrated approach being adopted by the HSE in relation to the needs of elderly patients who no longer require acute care;

notes, in particular:

— that all hospitals have escalation plans to manage not only patient flow but also patient safety in a responsive, controlled and planned way that supports and ensures the delivery of optimum patient care;

— actions being taken to address ED overcrowding, including the opening of additional overflow areas, the reopening of closed beds, the provision of additional diagnostic scans and consultants doing additional ward rounds to improve the appropriate flow of patients through the hospital system;

— other actions being taken, including the provision of additional home care packages, additional transition beds in nursing homes, 300 additional Nursing Homes Support Scheme places and an extension in Community Intervention Teams;

— that the Minister for Health convened the Emergency Department Taskforce to find long-term solutions to overcrowding by providing additional focus and momentum in dealing with the challenges presented by the current trolley waits; following an initial meeting last December, the HSE is working on an action plan to be finalised by the end of January to specifically address ED issues with a view to a significant reduction in trolley waits over the course of 2015;

— that the Government has made provision for a welcome increase in the total financial resources available to the HSE in 2015; this increase in funding, which is comprised of additional Exchequer funding of €305 million, increased projected once off revenues of €330 million, and minimum savings of €130 million in areas such as procurement, and drug and agency costs, is part of a two year programme to stabilise and improve health funding after seven years of significant retrenchment as a direct consequence of the emergency financial situation the Irish State has had to address;

— that in 2015 the budget for the Nursing Homes Support Scheme is €949 million and this is supporting over 22,300 people in residential care; the budget for community services is €315 million and this is providing home help and home care package services to some 56,000 people at any one time;

— that the Government provided additional funding of €3 million last December and €25 million in 2015 to address delayed discharges; this funding is being targeted at hospital and community services which can demonstrate initiatives to address specific needs of delayed discharge patients most positively and therefore improve timelines for admission from EDs and waiting lists; this has reduced the waiting time for approved applicants from over 14 weeks to 11 weeks currently;

— that the Review of the Nursing Homes Support Scheme which is currently underway will consider the future funding and sustainability of the Scheme as well as how

community and residential services are balanced; this Review will be completed shortly, following which the Government will be considering how best to meet the needs of older people in the future; and

— that the long-term solution to the problem involves a shift from worsening ill-health in our population to greater well-being through societal change supported by Healthy Ireland initiatives on obesity, smoking, alcohol misuse and greater physical activity; and

supports the Minister for Health in his continued determination to bring about improvements in urgent and emergency care services.

I thank the Fianna Fáil Party for giving me another opportunity to report on emergency department overcrowding and to outline the actions that are being taken by hospitals, social care, the HSE and the Government to alleviate the current situation in the short term and resolve it in the medium term.

The Government acknowledges that the problem of overcrowding is serious, real and cannot continue. We discussed it at Cabinet this week and last. It was on the Cabinet sub-committee agenda in December and will be again this month. I attended the second meeting of the emergency department task force today, but I assure the House that much more than task force meetings is happening. There have been daily, twice daily or, on one occasion, thrice daily conference calls among senior national and regional-level staff since the new year. I took part in one of these over the weekend.

This issue is a priority for me and the Government. Emergency department overcrowding is a blight on our health service, which is otherwise good in so many ways. I cannot accept the suggestion from some Members opposite that we have a Third World health service. That does a disservice, not just to our country, but also to the people who work in and use our service.

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