Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 847: To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide an update on the work of the special delivery unit in tackling the issue of patients on trolleys at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, County Louth, in view of the fact that in recent days there have been in excess of 30 patients on trolleys; the procedures that have been put in place for when the additional money that has been allocated to the Louth-Meath area runs out to ensure that services are maintained and developed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40977/11]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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During October, the SDU sought proposals from hospitals with significant numbers waiting on trolleys to reduce the number waiting during the months of November 2011 to January 2012 and in particular over the critical Christmas and New Year holiday period.

At the end of 2011 Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda was identified as one of eight hospitals that required very high support by the Special Delivery Unit (SDU). Based on comprehensive plans from the hospital I agreed that additional funding would be provided, on a strictly once off basis, to reduce waiting times between now and the end of 2011. The funding was to provide for initiatives which would help address issues such as delayed discharges which has a significant impact on the numbers of patients waiting on trolleys.

The SDU focused resources on OLOL and allocated once off funding of €0.725m to enable it to implement the various initiatives the hospital had identified as being key to alleviating the conditions in the emergency department.

These measures included:

· Extending the Medical Assessment Unit service including an increase in the opening hours /and from a five to a seven day a week basis.

· Opening 8 medical beds in Drogheda

· Opening 28 low acuity beds in Louth/Navan hospitals to provide intermediate care discharge area

· Opening 27 beds in community/ private facilities to accommodate delayed discharge patients

· Various measures for early assisted discharge for medically fit patients including additional home care packages, home IVs, and additional aids and appliances.

Over €4.8m was made available to 16 hospitals throughout the country for specific planned outcomes. The SDU established a process of collecting numbers waiting each day at three specific points and rating each hospital as Green, Amber or Red.

To date, the initiative has worked well nationally with trolley numbers significantly down on the same period last year. The systems remains in a state of high alert to ensure that capacity is carefully managed as surgery programmes re-commence in hospitals on the week commencing 9th January.

I would also like to advise the Deputy that OLOL was successful in achieving the objective of having no one waiting over 12 months for inpatient or daycase surgery by December 31st 2011. Forty one hospitals reached this target with 2 hospitals (University College Hospital Galway and Merlin Park) failing to do so. This work will continue in 2012 to both maintain the 12 month maximum waiting time and to further reduce waiting times by the end of 2012.