Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

All of that sounds fantastic, but the reality is that it is not having an impact on the ground. Trolley numbers at University Hospital Limerick are still unacceptably high and are entirely out of sync with every other hospital in the country. The only solution is for the Minister to appoint a senior official within the HSE or the Department of Health, or an external independent consultant, to decamp to Limerick to take up control. Such a person should report to the Minister on a daily basis with identified outcomes, actions that will address the seriousness of the situation and workflows that will ensure the numbers on trolleys return to the normal average that exists. Of course we understand that there are peak times when numbers are expected to escalate for various reasons. It cannot be acceptable that on two occasions in recent times, University Hospital Limerick has broken all records for the number of patients on trolleys. This is within the control of the Minister. A little forward thinking is required. It is certainly not about establishing an academy. If one were developing an academy around best practice, one would not start at the ground operations in Limerick.

We need intervention and management control. There should be a direct line to the Minister that enables him and the HSE to respond. The appropriate moneys should be put in place to resolve the problem. It is not rocket science. It is about nurses and doctors. It is about money. It is about utilising every available bed in the region. There are private nursing homes that are not at full capacity. It should not be beyond our capabilities to have people decanted into these facilities, where adequate and appropriate nursing care is available to them. Bed capacity in the tertiary hospital should be left to those who need it. We need action. We do not need another photo opportunity with the Minister standing in front of some new development that will be of benefit some time in the future. We need action now. We need to address the people who are on trolleys. We need to have in place a service for the people who will find themselves in hospital over the coming days and weeks, as the winter conditions have a significant effect on older people.

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