Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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Question 466: To ask the Minister for Health if the special delivery unit has presented its report into the Mid West Regional Hospital, Limerick, to him; and if he will put this report into the public domain. [28316/11]

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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Question 475: To ask the Minister for Health if the special delivery unit has presented its report on the Mid Western Regional Hospital, Limerick; and if he will place that report into the public domain. [28357/11]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 466 and 475 together.

A priority for this Government is the early implementation of measures that will address the overcrowding that became a feature of our hospital sector over the past decade. No useful purpose can be served by the nurses industrial action at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital or indeed at emergency departments in other parts of the country. Such action simply exacerbates an already challenging situation in the hospital.

Immediately following my appointment I set about establishing the Special Delivery Unit to unblock access to acute services by improving the flow of patients through the system. The SDU is focusing initially on emergency departments and will be working to support hospitals in addressing excessive waiting times for admission to hospital. The Special Delivery Unit (SDU) is planning to conduct a performance diagnostic analysis of the unscheduled care system in the acute hospital sector over the coming months. As part of the analysis, the SDU recently visited the Mid West Regional Hospital in Limerick.

Its recommendations were published on 5 October 2011 and are available on the Department of Health's website. These include some reallocation of existing staffing resources, a better bed management system and the shifting of day case capacity to other hospitals in the group. If these measures are fully implemented the SDU has indicated to me that considerable improvements can be made at the hospital within existing budgets.