Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I just want to observe with regard to UHL that over the bank holiday weekend in February, 140 people were waiting on trolleys but this weekend there were 79. That is a 56% reduction and it should be like that all the time. There is huge capacity going into Limerick in terms of the 96-bed block and a second one. There will be 582 new beds delivered. An interim report by HIQA was brought to me and I will probably publish it today. I can tell the House now that it is basically a summary of the work that has been done to date in terms of the schedule of meetings, the stakeholders that have been involved and so on. It does not make any commitments or suggestions about the direction of travel that will be in its final report, which I expect to receive in May. We have had a 56% reduction in a number of weeks based on changed working practices. There were 230 people waiting on trolleys over the weekend and Limerick alone contributed 79 of those. It is possible to reduce trolley numbers and the pressure in emergency departments by changing work practices alone. There was a 70% reduction nationally. This is possible without additional infrastructure but by changing work practices, in large part.

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