Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am not satisfied, nor are any of us, with either the number of people waiting on trolleys or the amount of time people are waiting. There are two parts to how we will solve this. First, we need extra capacity, including more emergency medicine, consultants, nurses, healthcare assistants, beds in hospitals, home care packages and preventative measures. A lot of work is going on there and I accept, on behalf of the State, that more capacity is needed.

Second, we need significant reform in how hospitals are managing patient flow. We know that some hospitals are doing well and that other hospitals are not doing well. The Deputy will be aware that I intervened after the new year bank holiday to instruct that the clinical teams, both community and acute, were rostered for weekends and evenings. We saw the number of people waiting on trolleys fall by 60% in about four or five days after that. I fully agree that we need more capacity, and we are committed to that. At the same time, we must see reforms and better ways of working from some hospitals.

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