Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on this important issue raised by the Deputies. The Government and the Minister are committed to the ongoing development of regional hospitals, such as Letterkenny University Hospital. Letterkenny is a large, busy hospital and the Government has allocated significant resources to meet the needs of patients using the hospital. There were more than 43,000 attendances at the emergency department in Letterkenny in 2022, an increase of 13% compared with 2019. There continues to be a high level of emergency department presentations in 2023, with more than 40,000 attendances between January and September. This represents a 25% increase in overall numbers compared to the same period in 2019 and, more importantly, the attendance figures for patients aged 75 or over is in excess of 6,200, an increase of 1,100 compared to 2019. Following a meeting between the Minister and the HSE CEO last week, it has been agreed that officials from the performance management and improvement unit will travel to Letterkenny this week to visit the hospital.

The improvement of emergency department waiting times is a priority of the Minister and Department, and reform of service delivery across the entire health system is a key part of achieving this. Improvement in patient flow in acute hospitals can be achieved by reducing unnecessary attendances and improving discharge supports. Expansion of community care and other measures to provide people the care they need outside of the emergency department can improve this patient flow and allow our emergency department resources to be better utilised, delivering care to those most urgently in need.

The budget for the hospital has increased from €142 million in 2019 to almost €178 million in 2023, an increase of just under 25%. As of April 2023, 2,144 whole-time equivalents were employed by Letterkenny University Hospital, an increase of over 20% since 2020.

A National Ambulance Service-led service called Pathfinder went live in Letterkenny in April. Pathfinder is designed to safely keep older people who phone 112 or 999 in their own home, rather than taking them to a hospital emergency department. It improves outcomes for older people by providing safe alternative care at home rather than in hospital.

There has been significant investment in services in Letterkenny University Hospital in recent years. Capital projects completed in the past two years include the expansion of gynaecology services; the opening of the acute stroke unit; the provision of an additional endoscopy theatre and a new maternity theatre; and the provision of additional patient beds. There are several capital projects under way which will add additional capacity in services for patients. Projects planned and under way include the expansion of the renal department, the expansion of the oncology day unit and the electrical infrastructure upgrade.

As part of last year’s national winter plan, there was a bespoke site-level plan for Letterkenny University Hospital. While the winter plan officially ended at the end of last winter, many of the plan initiatives continue to be implemented. The Minister asked the HSE to develop a new approach to urgent and emergency care, UEC, planning to reflect the year-round demands on emergency departments, including in Letterkenny University Hospital. The approach to UEC planning is twofold. First, an operational plan for UEC for 2023, which was approved by the Government in July, will be delivered and, second, a three-year multi-annual UEC plan is expected to be submitted to Government later this year.

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