Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. It is unacceptable that patients must wait on trolleys for long periods, especially those who may be elderly or vulnerable. The full capacity protocol was devised in order to redeploy hospital resources towards surges in demand for emergency care, thereby reducing emergency department waiting times. I accept the argument that the department in University Hospital Limerick is one of the busiest in the country, with approximately 67,000 attendances annually. Demand for emergency department services at the hospital continues to rise, with an increase of 6% in attendances at the hospital in 2017 compared with 2016.

The House will be aware that overcrowding at the hospital's emergency department has been a concern for some time. It is frequently working above capacity using full capacity protocol and this contributes to inefficient ways of working and poor patient experience. In recognition of this high demand, funding of €24 million was provided for the new accident and emergency department at University Hospital Limerick, which opened in May last year. The new facility is triple the size of the old department and immeasurably improves the experience of patients in terms of their comfort, privacy and dignity. The Minister, Deputy Harris, visited the department on its opening last year and was very impressed with the pod-based design to streamline patient pathways.

I accept the Deputy's point. The emergency department at UHL continues to be challenged and sees too many patients on trolleys each day. The Minister has been in direct contact with the director general of the HSE, the hospital group chief executive officer, the group clinical director and the head of the HSE's special delivery unit to express his concerns about high trolley numbers and to seek assurances that action is being taken to address the situation urgently. The special delivery unit has been working closely with hospitals currently experiencing emergency department pressures with a view to improving patient flow and reducing the number of patients on trolleys. At the request of the Minister, Deputy Harris, UHL has submitted an emergency department performance improvement plan which sets out in detail how performance will be improved. The plan is currently being implemented and I expect to see incremental improvement.

To alleviate overcrowding pressures, 17 new surge capacity beds opened in the old emergency department in UHL in September 2017. These beds will be converted into a medical short-stay unit in 2018 which, again, is a measure to combat the requirement of using the full capacity protocol. UHL was also chosen as a pilot site for a national HSE programme designed to improve patient flow across acute hospitals and the wider health service. This programme is aimed at developing and assessing different approaches to the improvement of patient flow.

To conclude, the Minister is acutely aware of the current situation in UHL in terms of using the full capacity protocol and is monitoring the situation closely. The Department, the HSE and the University Limerick hospital group are carrying out measures to improve this situation and reduce the need to utilise the full capacity protocol.

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