Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Smyth is entirely correct. As our hospitals and health service get busier again, people in this House rightly ask me how we are going to resume non-Covid-19 care alongside Covid-19 care. That will present real challenges for our health service, but also opportunities to do things differently. Today the HSE published the framework which includes the criteria it is sending out to the system. It outlines the things the management of hospitals or community care settings must be conscious of and asks how they intend to respond. Requests along the lines the Deputy has outlined will come from that. Management will ask for additional physical space and additional resources to do things differently. Deputy Smyth knows this from his own experience. When I talk to people in the health service I often find the movement of a patient from one place to another is to do with the need for a bed. Sometimes it is to do with the need for more porters or healthcare assistants. As a result of publishing the framework today, the HSE will receive many requests from across the health service. It will collate them and present them to my Department in the coming weeks.

Emergency department attendances are increasing. They have gone up by 31.9% in the past 30 days, albeit from a very low base. As we move towards the winter, this will become all the more important.

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