Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. Without question that there have been record attendances in our emergency departments over the last month. The situation is very challenging in many emergency departments across the country with those record attendances. What is more worrying is the preponderance or majority of those over 75 years are presenting to emergency departments with more acute illnesses than would have been the case in previous times. The clinicians on the ground say that this is a legacy arising from the Covid period because people did not present earlier during the pandemic for obvious reasons. There were lockdowns and most recently during Omicron elective procedures were de-escalated and diagnostics were not at the same levels. For example, cancer biopsies or attendances went down by 15% in 2020. In the next period, we will witness delayed diagnosis coming to the fore, more acute illness, more acute cancer presentations because Covid meant that people did not get the earlier interventions that would have been the norm without the pandemic. That is the reality. That is notwithstanding the fact that we have dramatically invested and increased home package care hours, for example. Some 55,000 families now benefit from homecare packages that are fully funded. However, there is a problem around hospital discharging as Deputies will be aware. Some 50% of nursing homes and community nursing units have had Covid outbreaks now. The regulations governing that mean they cannot accept new patients for about 28 days. We understand why that regulation was put in. I understand that the Health Protection Surveillance Centre is examining that. That has created a problem in egress from hospitals which, again, is a legacy of Covid. Indeed, it is not just a legacy but a present-day reality of Covid which is preventing people from leaving hospitals when their care is complete. Bed capacity has increased to record levels in the last 12 months. Investment in health has been at record levels. I think it has increased by €6 billion since the original allocation of 2018. There has been a range of innovations. The Deputy mentioned GPs. There has been huge investment in general practice service in the last two years, particularly around chronic disease management and GP access to diagnostics. That has made dramatic progress. Some 138,000 radiology scans were delivered in the community in 2021. That reduces pressure on the acute services.

However, we must respond to this current situation by pressing ahead with increased capacity on the acute side but also by examining the situation with nursing homes and community nursing units and further delivery of home care packages as well. Across the board, a whole range of measures have been introduced because it is not just about one task force for one or two months of the year. It must be a more holistic approach that is system-wide within the health service. It must be on the primary care side, community care side and acute side and there must be discharge provision and capacity as well. Government is working with the HSE to ensure we can do doing everything we possibly can to alleviate the pressures on emergency Departments right now.

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