Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Local health services throughout the State have come under severe pressure due to workforce shortages, challenging working conditions, growing waiting lists and excessively long wait times. This impacts staff morale and undermines confidence in the health service. Local health services and GP services need to be improved as a priority. The lack of alternative care options in the community is placing further strain on our hospitals and their emergency departments. Nowhere is this more evident than at Limerick’s main hospital, University Hospital Limerick, a hospital in perennial crisis with its full capacity protocol in use almost all the time. Surgeries and outpatients’ appointments get delayed as the hard-working staff try to cope with the high number of presentations. Subsequently, people are treated on hospital trolleys and in hospital corridors. Already in March, 1,300 people have been left on trolleys at UHL. So far this year, 5,620 people have been left on trolleys. This is a national scandal. It is important to remember that each of these people has been assessed and deemed to be in need of a bed, yet no bed is available.

This motion calls for the establishment of a working group on the development of primary care, which much be a priority. The group would not be starting with a blank page. There are some examples of how care outside the hospital can be successful. One is the pathfinder programme, which has been rolled out in a number of counties, including my own, County Limerick. It is successful in triaging patients and in many cases avoiding emergency department presentations. The pathfinder teams respond to low-acuity 999 calls from people aged over 65. With pathfinder, the citizen is assessed in his or her home by a paramedic and others. It is a service that should be greatly expanded, not reduced. The HSE provided statistics that show it can make an impact. In the first eight months of 2023, some 2,874 ambulance calls were referred to the pathfinder teams. Of these patients, 42% were able to stay at home where they availed of alternative pathways of care, rather than going to hospital. In the mid-west region, between April and September 2023, 188 patients were assessed by these teams, 47% of whom were supported at home, avoiding an emergency department presentation. Expanding such services can make a critical difference but such an expansion needs to be matched by an increase in the number of nursing home beds and community care. I welcome the motion.

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