Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Cathaoirleach is fair and equitable in his role. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, to the House. On a personal note, I wish him well. Politics is a tough game and I very much respect what he is doing. I put on record that he has a phenomenal body of work to his name. I wish him well for the future and he might return at some point.

This matter concerns overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick. There is a sense of déjà vuas I raised it at a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Health last Wednesday, 2 October, when the Minister of State was present. There is persistent overcrowding and this is a human issue now, as opposed to a political matter. In September, University Hospital Limerick consistently had the highest number of people on trolleys and that has been the pattern for a long period. An average of 68 people per day were on trolleys this September, but in September 2018, there were an average of 44 people per day on trolleys. I have seen the daily figures since the start of October and over the past nine days, the average per day has been over 70. That figure is too high.

I put a number of suggestions to the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, and the Minister of State, Deputy Daly, and I concluded by calling for a radical action plan to tackle the overcrowding. There is a 60-bed block under construction and it is expected that it will be completed next June and operational next September. There is also a 96-bed acute care bed block in the planning and design phase, and the HSE has assured me the planning process will start at the beginning of the coming year. I have pushed for both projects and I got €100,000 for preliminary design work by University Hospital Limerick and the HSE in getting it under way.

This is a legacy issue and there was a reconfiguration when facilities at Ennis, Nenagh and St. John's hospitals were closed in 2009. There were supposed to be 138 co-location beds on the grounds of University Hospital Limerick but that did not happen. Over the next number of years we will have 150 extra beds, but until that happens, we must have radical interim measures to deal with overcrowding, which every day is affecting people I deal with.

There should be a number of components in these measures. An additional MRI scanner should be provided, as was mentioned at the meeting of the Oireachtas health committee last week. The existing MRI scanner is old and under severe pressure. It is contributing to the fact that diagnostics are not being completed on time. Recently there were 47 people awaiting discharge but in the previous year this number was always approximately four. There should be funding for fair deal transitional care to allow people to move to step-down facilities quickly. There are many people occupying beds in University Hospital Limerick who could avail of step-down facilities if funding was available. Perhaps facilities at Ennis, Nenagh and St. John's hospitals could be used more efficiently to get non-acute patients out of beds at University Hospital Limerick.

We are at a crisis point and I have campaigned about this for a long period. We must overcome the problems that will arise over winter. A commitment was given by the Minister and the Minister of State at the Oireachtas committee to meet representatives of the HSE and the Department to discuss matters specific to University Hospital Limerick and the mid-west before reverting to us. This is such an urgent issue that I am asking where is the radical action plan and when will it be implemented. Will there be a new MRI scanner as I do not believe that the process could still take up to eight weeks? This is a crisis and if we need a new scanner, it should be found. A transition package for people to avail of fair deal would allow people to be discharged more quickly to step-down facilities. The facilities at Ennis, Nenagh and St. John's hospitals could also be used more efficiently.