Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have said on many occasions that the position is not satisfactory in a number of areas, where elderly people are waiting on trolleys for a very long time or where incidents arise in overcrowded hospitals that should not arise. That is all the more reason that the impact of the spend that is in place should be examined and how capacity can be increased in an effective way to deal with the patients. While capacity is up by 5% this year, so too is the number of visits and calls to accident and emergency units.

The Deputy is aware that 1,000 beds were taken out of the system. There are 750 more nurses and 300 more consultants and doctors employed since 2011. There is an increase of €800 million in the spend for this year. I was talking to the Minister this morning. An increasing number of patients, both adults and children, are presenting with flu-like symptoms. The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has reported that influenza-like illness rates for the second week of 2016 are equivalent to the rates reported in mid-February last year and that influenza is expected to circulate for a number of weeks. There are 250,000 unused vaccines available at present. People aged over 65 years and people who are vulnerable or who work in the health service should avail of the opportunity to get the flu jab - the Deputy may shake his head if he thinks it is funny - and attend their local pharmacist or GP where it will be made available to them. There has been an increase of over 10% in the level of attendance by people over 65 years of age.

I also pointed out to the Deputy on the previous occasion he raised this matter that in December 2014, the Minister for Health convened the emergency department task force to ensure that where overcrowding began to occur in accident and emergency units, it would be addressed in a proper, integrated and system-wide way by the hospital groups dealing with the issue in the various hospitals. In April 2015, the HSE published the emergency department task force action plan with a range of actions that were time defined, such as getting the best out of the space available in hospitals and community capacity and developing internal extra capability and processes to deal with this. In addition, a sum of €170 million was allocated for that.

As Deputy Martin knows, without effective reform one can always say there is never enough money. He knows the process that applies here. When a budget is struck and agreed by the Cabinet, the HSE submits its programme to the Minister of the day. The Minister has 21 days to respond and either accepts it or makes amendments to it. Naturally, the HSE, in addressing the scale of the challenges, will always seek the maximum amount it can get. As I said, €13.6 billion has been allocated for this year, which is €800 million more than last year. Capacity is up by 5% but the increased number of attendances obviously creates pressures in accident and emergency units. This goes back to the point that to deal with these matters in a long-term way, the community and primary care system must be looked at as well as the capacity in hospitals, including the employment of consultants, doctors, nurses and other medical personnel down the line, and one must have the resources to be able to meet that.

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