Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the office of the Ceann Comhairle for accepting this issue, and the Minister of State for attending.

As we speak, and in recent weeks, the accident and emergency ward in Letterkenny General Hospital has faced another crisis situation. Staff are working in impossible conditions under severe pressure. Many of them, speaking off the record to the local media, have spoken of being at breaking point due to the pressure they have to endure.

Whenever the accident and emergency ward in Letterkenny is overcrowded patients remain on trolleys. I understand that in one case a patient had to stay on the trolley in the ambulance waiting to be admitted to a trolley in the actual ward. Privacy and dignity are denied to patients, qualities they should expect from a modern health service. Patients, many of whom are elderly and unwell, have to wait for long periods. Then there is the knock-on impact the next day when outpatient clinics are cancelled, with all the accompanying inconvenience. It is a very serious situation and happens all too often at Letterkenny General Hospital.

If that was not a big enough problem there is another. Only dozens of yards away is a state-of-the-art, brand new building with an accident and emergency ward unit and, two floors above, modern wards. However, there has been a delay of a year beyond what we expected would be its opening time because the builders, McNamara, went bust. Given the need for this building the issue should have been resolved much more quickly by the HSE in terms of the bonds and all the insurance and legalistic matters involved. It is in place now and fully completed. I urge the Minister of State and the HSE to ensure that this building is opened as soon as possible and that the necessary financial and personnel resources are provided to the management of the hospital to ensure this happens. We have already waited a year and cannot wait any longer.

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue which I am responding to on behalf of the Minister for Health. Letterkenny General Hospital provides a full range of acute services, including a 24-hour accident and emergency department. The hospital serves a catchment population of 350,000. I am sure the Deputy is well aware of this.

During October 2011, the special delivery unit, SDU, wrote to hospitals with the highest numbers of patients waiting on trolleys, seeking proposals aimed at reducing those numbers over the critical period of November 2011 to January 2012. A range of measures was approved across 16 hospital sites and funding of €4.85 million was allocated for the purpose, with strict performance criteria laid down. In addition, the SDU put in place arrangements whereby a staff member was on duty every day over the Christmas and new year period and each of the 28 emergency departments in the country submitted an update three times per day on the numbers waiting. In other words, they did a count three times a day as opposed to doing one every morning. This allowed for close monitoring of hospitals at risk and facilitated quick decision making in regard to corrective action where it was required. This process will continue during the month of January 2012.

This reporting structure confirmed the Letterkenny Hospital emergency department in general performed very satisfactorily during this period. Today's 8 a.m. figures indicate there were no patients waiting for admission. At national level, the signs so far have been encouraging with significant reductions recorded in numbers waiting each day compared with the same time last year.

The Health Service Executive, HSE, has advised that construction on the new medical accident and emergency block, which includes the new 19-bay emergency department, an 11-bay acute assessment unit and three 24-bed wards, commenced in early October 2011. It is scheduled for completion in the near future. Equipping and commissioning will then commence.

Last Friday, the Minister for Health approved the HSE's 2012 service plan which was drawn up against the backdrop of significant funding challenges. It is designed to reflect the changed priorities of the new Government and the significant programme of reform to be undertaken. While acute hospitals face an expenditure reduction of 7.8%, the further roll-out of the clinical care programmes and other measures to improve the efficiency of clinical care delivery will limit the reduction in patient activity to an average 3% against the 2011 outturn. Hospitals will work closely with the special delivery unit to ensure, notwithstanding this reduction, nobody waits longer than nine months for an elective procedure to ensure equitable access for all.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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I am shocked. Whoever wrote this reply needs to talk to the Letterkenny hospital nursing unions, local journalists and politicians rather than using some strange accounting mechanism to claim all is fine. For the life of me, I cannot understand from where the HSE is getting its figures and claiming everything is hunky dory. It must be a different hospital from the one from which I get reports. The fact remains the hospital was in crisis this winter, particularly after Christmas. This is not the first time.

A multimillion euro long-awaited hospital extension needs to be opened. The Minister of State spoke about it being equipped in the near future. She did not state the Minister and the HSE will commit the financial and personnel resources to the hospital's management to ensure the extension is opened as soon as possible. I appreciate the Minister of State visited the hospital recently and I have much respect for the work she has done in her brief. I hope she will put it to the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, that we need that extension opened as soon as possible. We cannot continue to expect the hospital staff to work under these conditions. More importantly, patients in the hospital deserve to have dignity, privacy and proper standards.

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The extension referred to by the Deputy was due for completion by early February 2012. As he knows, however, a storm in the middle of December caused considerable damage to the block. That has been put right and it is estimated the extension will be completed in the next six weeks. With the commissioning and additional works that need to be done on internal structures, the HSE believes the extension will be ready for use by June or July 2012.