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

I thank the Deputy. I want to say at the outset how very sorry I am to hear about Mary's experience of our health service. For most people, their experience of our health service is very good - that is what they tell us in patient experience surveys - but I know for some people it is very bad. Mary, sadly, is just one example of many others that all of us could recount to this House. It is not acceptable that she experienced that.

We know that overcrowding in emergency departments and delays in getting to a ward result in reduced patient outcomes. We know from international research from the UK, Western Australia and other parts of the world that it can result in higher mortality also. This is what makes it a very serious situation.

We are working on this as a Government. In less than three years the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, has added more than 1,000 beds to our acute hospital system, including community beds. We have 6,000 more doctors and nurses working in our health service than we did three years ago. We are doing a lot to keep people out of hospital in the first place with, for example, more funding for general practice and community intervention teams. There are also record levels of funding for home care so that people can get out of hospital when they are well. That is still a work in progress and there is much more to be done in this regard. We are catching up on period when there was very little investment because the country could not afford it.

In the coming years I will work very closely with the Minister Deputy Donnelly, and with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and the whole Government, to see what we can do to speed up health capital projects. Too many of them are taking too long. Some happen pretty quickly, and I am impressed with what happened in Kilkenny and the Mater, but some are going on forever and it is not okay.

I accept the point the Deputy made that overcrowding in a small emergency department in a small hospital can be worse, and I have seen it. I have been to small emergency departments such as in Naas and Portiuncula where ten or 11 patients on trolleys block up the corridors and the whole space in a way that would not be the same in a large emergency department with a lot of floor space. The point the Deputy made is valid in this regard.

The budget allocation for the hospital has increased to €85.6 million from less than €70 million five years ago. The outpatient department will be relocated to a new modular build on-site. That will allow the existing outpatient area to be converted into a 12-bed ward with eight single rooms and two twin rooms en suite. This area will accommodate service users requiring isolation rooms and end-of-life care. I am told that could be ready for occupancy later this year.

The Deputy will also be aware that enabling works have started on a new 50-bed ward block. This will provide 50 en suite single rooms allowing for the relocation of two medical wards from existing buildings and general improvement in the services to patients. We believe that could be open next year. Saolta University Health Care Group has also advised us the ward block could accommodate additional development, and enabling works have been completed with that in mind.

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