Maura Hopkins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I call for a debate in the House with the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, on the HSE's winter service plan. We are now at the start of November and there are already capacity problems in our emergency departments. The figures for yesterday show 308 people were on trolleys nationally, at least 12 of whom were in Portiuncula Hospital. I raise this because this afternoon I received a phone call from a family member whose relative in her 90s was taken to the emergency department last night. The details of the case have caused me significant concern with regard to the wait time before the person was seen and the extreme pressure the healthcare professionals in our emergency departments are under.

In outlining the need for a debate, I also want to reference a new HSE report on winter planning. It states additional Government funding to address the pressures on the health service last winter, which saw record numbers on trolleys, effectively came too late to be of optimal use. We need to learn from these reports. The challenge at present is we are now in November and we are being told a final plan for dealing with additional pressures on services, in respect of the winter plan, will be submitted to the Department in the next number of days. Clearly this is not a good way to plan for the additional pressures we face. I feel very strongly about this. We know that at this time there are additional pressures and we need the HSE and Department of Health to plan for them. In its report, the HSE stated this planning should be finalised and agreed in the summer. It is extremely important to discuss what has been found in the report and put it into practice to try to deal with phone calls such as the one I received from a relative this afternoon, and ensure we have better wait times and greater resources in our emergency departments to support these individuals.