Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 123: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children if she will report on her recent proposals for the placing of extra beds in hospital wards to address the accident and emergency crisis; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16227/05]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The Health and Safety Authority recommended that the Health Service Executive determine on a hospital-by-hospital basis, having undertaken the necessary risk assessment and staff consultation, whether extra capacity can be achieved within existing units. The national hospitals office has asked hospital managers to examine the potential for using the total hospital capacity including inpatient wards for patients who require admission in an attempt to alleviate pressure on accident and emergency departments. I expect to be briefed by the national hospitals office in the near future on the outcome of its initiative with hospitals in this area.

It is a matter for each individual hospital's management to exercise its own judgment on how to reduce health and safety risks within a facility. Hospital managers have been asked to have regard to international best practice in areas such as improving work flow issues and increasing the use of more appropriate community-based interventions to reduce the pressure on accident and emergency units. To assist those hospitals experiencing continuing pressures on the emergency service, the NHO is in the process of seeking tenders from companies which are expert in the area of work-flow management to carry out a review of ten hospitals to determine what internal efficiencies can be achieved to improve patient flow and reduce overcrowding.