Dáil debates

Tuesday, 26 November 2019

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

 

2:20 pm

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, I acknowledge that our emergency departments are very busy at present. They are busy all year round but they have been particularly busy in the past number of weeks. As a Government, we deeply regret the fact that this is having a terrible impact on patients and their families and on staff. There are factors behind it, particularly when it comes to children's hospitals. It is largely related to an outbreak of respiratory syncytial virus and norovirus, which has caused a significant increase in attendances in the past couple of days.

The Deputy mentioned solutions. We know what the solutions are and we are implementing them. We have been adding more beds to the hospital system every year since 2015 and will continue to do so. We have a plan to add another 2,000 beds over the next ten years reversing the policy of a previous Government to take thousands of beds out of the system. There is more allocation for home help. There has been an increase of about 40% in the home help budget in the past two or three years and another million home help hours are factored in for next year. There are additional resources for the fair deal scheme so that more patients who are medically fit to be discharged can be discharged. There is additional money in the winter plan for aids and appliances because some patients cannot go home because they need adaptations to their homes or certain aids and appliances. We have also reached an important agreement with GPs to increase funding for general practice and expand the services they provide over the next couple of years and will take on about 1,000 staff in the community. It will take time for this to have an effect but it will have the effect of reducing the number of people who need to go to hospital in the first place.

The Deputy mentioned University Hospital Limerick. As she is aware, under this Government, this hospital has a new emergency department, which is probably the largest and most modern such department in the country. Nonetheless, it is heavily crowded. A new wing in that hospital - the Leben wing - opened in recent years and there is a €20 million investment for a 60-bed inpatient ward block that is nearing completion. I am told the enabling works are complete. The main contractor has commenced work and we anticipate that construction will be completed around the middle of next year allowing it to open in 2020. Those are the kind of things that are being done.

I know people use the term "re-open old beds" as if there are beds that have been closed that could just be opened. Those old beds that were closed ten, 15 or 20 years ago have long since become outpatient and radiology departments. They cannot just be reopened. Only about 20 out of the 11,000 beds in our health service are closed for one reason or another - either because of infection control or for refurbishment - so if we want to add extra beds, we must add entire new ward blocks, which is what we are doing in Limerick, Clonmel and other places.

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