Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 498: To ask the Minister for Health his future plans to improve the current conditions of the accident and emergency department at Tallaght hospital, Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32810/11]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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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 was established in June and quickly began work with the HSE to put in place a systematic approach to eliminate excessive waiting in emergency departments. The SDU is establishing an infrastructure based on information collection and analysis, hospital by hospital, so that we will know what is actually happening in real time. This will allow us to begin to embed performance management in the system to sustain shorter waiting times.

The SDU has identified the hospitals which account for the greatest number of trolley waits and which will benefit from intensive support between now and the end of the year. Liaison officers are working pro-actively to support these sites. I have also agreed that some additional funding may be provided, on a strictly once off basis, based on specific proposals from the hospitals to reduce waiting times. Adherence to the agreed criteria will be closely monitored by the SDU.

In the case of Tallaght, the hospital has requested a range of supports and the SDU has agreed to a set of proposals which will cost over €300,000 between now and the end of this year. These supports include the opening of a ward for low acuity patients, accessing additional nursing home places and the deployment of an additional community Gerontologist to minimise avoidable re-admission.

Peaks and troughs are a feature of attendances at emergency departments. The SDU is working with hospitals to use the data on attendance patterns to plan for the variations which will inevitably occur. At my behest, the SDU is driving this approach to radically reduce the overcrowding in our emergency departments which has been tolerated for far too long.