Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a serious issue for many who are affected by overcrowding in accident and emergency departments around the country. The problem does not affect every accident and emergency department but the circumstances are quite serious in some. The Minister for Health has, of course, read the HIQA report and will respond to it formally in due course. In broad terms, he and the rest of the Government accept it and what HIQA is stating in it, particularly its points on workforce planning, management, bed capacity and diagnostics. The individual cases the Deputy highlighted and that her colleagues highlighted last night in the Dáil are not acceptable to the Government and HSE, so we need to do better.

We must recognise that the 136,000 professionals working in our health service are delivering good outcomes every day for patients across a range of specialties, including in cancer care, cardiac services, stroke services and maternity units. That is a given but it is important to put it on the record.

The context is important. Last night, the Deputy's party had a motion before the House on this issue and the challenges presenting in our hospitals. There was no mention of Covid-19, which was a global pandemic, a once-in-a-century event. We are still very much living with the effects because the virus is still here. We acknowledge that the demand for services has grown significantly because of Covid and respiratory syncytial virus, RSV, in addition to flu and streptococcus A. The difficulties evident in our hospitals and some of our emergency departments are not unique to Ireland. The Deputy will be quite familiar with the circumstances in Northern Ireland, in particular, and also in England, Scotland and Wales. The European Centre for Disease Control warned earlier this week of the impact of Covid, RSV and flu on health services right across Europe. That said, of course we have to do everything we possibly can to address the situation.

When engaging with Sinn Féin's health spokesperson last night, the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, mentioned University Hospital Waterford and the fact that, come Saturday, it will have achieved 1,000 days without a patient on a trolley. The HSE needs to examine very carefully where best practice is occurring and how it can be replicated around the country. Some of it will come down to investment, bed capacity and staffing but also to effective management. When I consider this in the round, I note a healthcare budget whose core funding is now 24% higher than in 2020. The Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, has delivered more than 900 new acute hospital beds, 73 sub-acute beds and over 340 community beds. Critical care capacity, which we acknowledge was not where it needed to be, is now 25% higher than in 2020 and will continue to rise. We have had a 25% increase in the number of specialist palliative care beds across the system.

The action plan to which Deputy McDonald referred is the winter plan. It is fully funded-----

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