Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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1067. To ask the Minister for Health his views on the statement by the chief executive officer of Beaumont Hospital, Dublin 9, that the hospital is currently unsafe for patients; the action he proposes to take in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34192/14]

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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1129. To ask the Minister for Health the steps he will be take to address concerns recently outlined by the Chief Executive of Beaumont Hospital regarding overcrowding and lengthy delays for patients seeking treatment at the hospital. [34757/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1067 and 1129 together.

Beaumont Hospital manages admissions and discharges hourly each day through its Patient Flow hub. On average the hospital currently admits 27% of those attending to the Emergency Department (between 900 and 1,000 per week) and aims to ensure that the 73% of patients who do not require admission are seen in a timely way and are assessed and treated appropriately. Patients of other key areas such as oncology, radiation oncology, emergency neurosurgery and kidney disease may also be admitted directly to those specialties as emergencies if the acuity of their condition requires admission. In the circumstances where admissions exceed discharges the hospital's Escalation Policy is activated.

The hospital recognises that overcrowding in the ED represents a potential safety issue and therefore escalation measures are designed to alleviate such problems. The purpose of the Escalation Policy is to ensure safe patient care by moving patients to inpatient beds as expeditiously as possible.

On Wednesday 27 August, the escalation measures already in place were not sufficiently effective to alleviate a surge of pressure in ED. Further escalation was requested by the CEO and Lead Clinical Director in an internal communication to the consultant body, to ensure that patient safety was not acutely compromised by this surge. Further discharges were made during the remainder of the week and the situation stabilised by Friday 29 August.

The Department and the HSE (National Clinical Care Programmes, SDU, and the Acute Hospitals Directorate) are seeking to achieve sustainable change through the use of key metrics, aligned with a suite of resources to support hospitals to deliver on performance measures, build capacity and  enhance capability so as to improve the overall quality of the patient journey. In addition, measures involving the full health system including primary, community and continuing care services, are regularly invoked to ensure that all available capacity and options are utilised and brought to bear on surges such as that which arose on 27 August in Beaumont.