Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 915: To ask the Minister for Health the place to which patients from Tallaght Hospital, Dublin, and St. James's Hospital, Dublin, are discharged into or referred to when they require step down care. [41413/11]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Immediately following my appointment as Minister for Health, I set about establishing the Special Delivery Unit, the purpose of which is to unblock access to acute services by improving the flow of patients through the system. As a priority the SDU is addressing the issue of unacceptably long trolley waits.

The particular issues vary from hospital to hospital and some of the solutions will depend on local factors. As part of the process of forming the overall picture of the emergency department situation nationally, the SDU has identified fifteen hospitals which between them account for 80% of the trolley wait problem in the hospital system and Liaison Officers from the SDU are working proactively to support these sites. As part of this process some once off funding was made available to hospitals based on specific proposals to reduce waiting times and to help address issues such as delayed discharges. Adherence to the agreed criteria is being closely monitored by the SDU.

I can confirm that Tallaght Hospital and St. James's Hospital received funding of €294k and €140k respectively to enable them to implement measures aimed at reducing delayed discharges.

In relation to the Deputy's query regarding where patients were discharged to, I have arranged for the question to be forwarded to the HSE who will respond directly to the Deputy.