Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to take part in the debate. I agree with much of what has been said by Members on both sides of the House. I agree that the safety and quality of patient care must be our primary focus. Patients should receive the very highest standard of treatment, irrespective of where they seek it. Elderly patients should not wait more than six hours for treatment.

In my constituency, Louth and East Meath, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital is, unfortunately, regularly in the headlines because of the high number of patients on trolleys. I have worked very closely with the hospital in trying to reduce the number of patients on trolleys and I am confident that we are addressing the issue, although I would prefer if the numbers fell more quickly.

I have spoken on many occasions with my colleague, the Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, about the need to address overcrowding in emergency departments. We both agree that the situation is not satisfactory and improvements are needed. We also agree that simply throwing money at the situation will not resolve it, as has been proven in the past.

The emergency department task force was set up in December 2014 to provide a focus in dealing with the challenges posed by overcrowding in emergency departments. In April this year, the task force action plan was published and a range of actions were identified. They included optimising existing hospitals and community capacity; developing internal capacity and process improvements; and improved leadership, governance, planning and oversight.

I note that the task force implementation group met most recently on 2 November, that the implementation of the action I outlined is continuing and key priority actions have been identified. They include strong centralised operation processes within hospitals to drive bed management and discharge planning; consistent access to senior decision makers within the emergency department to ensure appropriate admission and enable effective discharge management on a seven-day basis; delegated discharge and enhanced roles for nurses to include the expansion of ENP roles with emergency departments; effective management of demand and capacity requirements regarding scheduled and unscheduled care; and an appropriate structures within the hospital and local community services to ensure an integrated and timely response to continuing care needs.

While we still have a long way to go, it is somewhat pleasing that progress has been made and this can be seen in the fact that delayed discharges are steadily reducing. There were 570 on 27 October 2015, down from 830 in December 2014. The waiting time for NHSS funding has reduced from 11 weeks at the beginning of the year to between two and four weeks. Transitional care funding supported almost 2,000 people who were approved for the fair deal scheme to move from acute to non-acute care while awaiting long-term care placements. Over 1,200 additional home care packages will have been provided by the end of 2015. Some 149 additional nursing home beds, including 24 additional private contract beds in Moorehall, County Louth, and 65 short-term beds in Mount Carmel have been opened in 2015.

We are on target to provide an additional 1,604 NHSS places. I note that the director general of the HSE is co-chairing the emergency department task force implementation group from now until March 2016. He has taken this decision in order to ensure that all relevant parts of the health services, including acute, social and primary care, are optimising resources in order to deal with the particular challenges associated with the winter months.

We are going in the right direction because, under the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, the health service is changing. We have learned that throwing money at a problem will not solve it. We need to make key changes to how we deliver health services. We need the full support of, and backing from, all key shareholders. These changes will not happen overnight as they will take time to implement.

I ask that all Members of the House, particularly members of the Opposition, work together on this issue. Health is not an issue for political football. We need joined-up thinking and a united approach to ensure we provide a world-class health system for the people of Ireland. I know from my work on the health committee that results can be achieved when we work together regardless of our party allegiance. We need to learn from the lessons of the past, when throwing money at a problem was seen as the only solution. The problem with our health service cannot be resolved by money alone. Changes are needed in how we manage and deliver health services. I firmly believe we are now on the right road to delivering a world-class health service and time will prove this.

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