Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

That is a significant reform, whether Deputy Kelleher likes it or not. The Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, has mentioned the need for accountability. The Government does not support the privatisation of hospitals, but it recognises that if hospital groups are to have more autonomy, they and their constituent hospitals must be held to account. Action will be taken if improvements are not secured and sustained. The organisation of acute hospitals into a small number of groups, each with its own governance and management, provides the opportunity to deliver high-quality, safe patient care in a cost-effective manner.

Hospital groups and primary care must work together closely. As the Minister outlined earlier, a good example of this has been the development and implementation of winter resilience plans, involving collaboration between hospital groups and community health care organisations throughout the current winter period. We will continue to prioritise enabling older people to remain in their own homes and communities for as long as possible, ensuring that appropriate residential care is available when it is needed.

Overcrowding in our emergency departments and long waiting times are not a new problem. Similar problems are seen in health services across the developed world. Northern Ireland has had its fair share of problems in recent years in respect of overcrowding, and unfortunately it has the worst record in the system in terms of meeting NHS targets. This Government fully recognises that overcrowding is, rightly, an issue of genuine public concern. There is no instant remedy; trolley numbers will continue to fluctuate seasonally and because of our demographics. The Government, the Minister, the HSE and those on the front line want to ensure that we continue to develop a service that has the capacity to respond, to flex and to stretch so that we can cope with seasonal surges. Now that the economy is recovering, we can tackle these problems. With the support of clinical directors, consultants and all the staff involved in the health service, we can secure the long-term solutions we need to address the overcrowding problem and respond to patients' needs in a safe, patient-centred way. I promise the House that the Government, the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, and the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, will continue to work hard to find solutions to this complex problem, which we can all agree has existed for far too long.

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