Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Grealish is perfectly entitled to raise this issue, which has been raised by a number of Deputies in recent times. The fact of the matter is that the accident and emergency department at University Hospital Galway is too small and, as a result, the foyer leading into it is consistently jammed with people. As the Deputy has rightly pointed out, just one in four of those who go through the foyer into the accident and emergency unit actually end up going into the hospital for treatment. Even though this is a central issue, few others have had the accuracy to refer to it. As Deputy Grealish knows, this unit was originally designed in the 1950s and was upgraded in the late 1960s. It caters for 1 million people in the greater region. There is a need to look at what the situation should be in five, ten or 15 years' time for the greater spectrum of care for patients in the university hospitals. As the Deputy has pointed out, the university hospitals in Galway are University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park University Hospital.

I understand that the Minister for Health intends to visit the hospital in December, as Deputy Grealish mentioned. Following my own visit last year, a commitment to have a new accident and emergency department provided for University Hospital Galway was included in the programme for Government. The Saolta group, which deals with these matters, as the Deputy is aware, has advised that a cost-benefit analysis of the new accident and emergency department project has been submitted to the HSE national estates directorate. It has been considered and was accepted on 15 November last. We will now move on to deal with the provision of funding for the project in the review of the capital programme, which is to be carried out in 2017.

There is a consultant-led service at University Hospital Galway that opens from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and that takes all medical patients to the emergency department following triage of their particular conditions. There is access to key facilities such as diagnostics in order to facilitate rapid decision-making and so on. The service sees approximately 30 patients a day. In the course of examining the operational flow through the emergency department in 2005 and 2006, an internal reconfiguration was put in place to create a minor injuries area that would take away many of those who are in the system waiting to be admitted and who may, in fact, not need to be admitted. This is, as the Deputy points out, also the case at Roscommon County Hospital, which is now busier than ever. All non-core clinical accommodation was moved out of the department to create additional capacity. The emergency department now accommodates 62,000 attendances annually. Despite recent improvements in that patient flow - achieved by keeping the acute medical assessment unit, AMAU, free of boarded patients during periods of peak attendance at the emergency department - the Saolta Group advises that University Hospital Galway is extremely challenged. A 75-bed unit is being completed, as the Deputy knows.

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