Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for tabling these important questions. This is happening because of years of decisions that there were too many hospital beds in the health service. As a result of the withdrawal of beds during that time, we need to continue to increase the number of beds. This year, for the first time since 2009, there are 11,000 open beds in the health service. We need to continue to increase this number while simultaneously reorientating the health service. I understand that a question tabled by Deputy Brassil, which we will come to later, relates to how we build up our community care.

On budget day, we announced the provision of €26 million between now and 31 December for winter preparedness. From memory, I think this is the largest sum we have allocated for the period from now until December. When I met the chief executive of the HSE, Mr. Paul Reid, on Monday, I made it clear that the HSE needs to get on with spending that money on increasing home care supply, increasing access to transitional care and providing extra funding for the fair deal. We are announcing the flu vaccine campaign today. We are fully funding that as well.

We are also looking at access to diagnostics. The Deputy and I were both present at last week's meeting of the Joint Committee on Health when it was told that on an average day, there might be 30 people in the hospital he mentioned who could get home if they could access diagnostics such as MRI scans and CAT scans. The provision of mobile diagnostic facilities in places like Limerick is an absolute priority as well.

The emergency department task force, which is meeting today, is one of the many forums at which the issue of overcrowding is discussed. There will be an opportunity to discuss overcrowding with nurses, patient representatives, doctors and health service managers throughout the country. I am pleased that Anne O'Connor, who is the chief operations officer in the HSE, has been leading on winter preparedness. She has been working on integrated winter plans between the community care system and the hospital groups. These integrated plans will support the development of a single overarching winter plan from the HSE, which will be finalised in the coming days. I am satisfied that we have provided the HSE with significant funding to increase the number of social and community supports that are available to try to decongest some of our hospitals.

The hospital in Limerick to which Deputy Donnelly specifically referred has, like the mid-west as a whole, has been neglected in terms of bed capacity for many decades. That neglect stops now. A 60-bed modular unit is under construction in the hospital as we speak. A further 96 beds are outlined in the capital plan. This means the hospital in Limerick will see a net increase of approximately 150 beds.

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