Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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478. To ask the Minister for Health the degree to which adequate provision is being made at various hospitals nationally to ensure that patients waiting on trolleys are reduced to the minimum; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43928/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I wish to acknowledge the distress overcrowded EDs cause to patients, their families and frontline staff working in very challenging working conditions in hospitals throughout the country.

This Government remains committed to tackling overcrowding in EDs and improving access to health services. Preparations and planning for Winter 2018-19 are well advanced at hospital and local level. The Department of Health is working with the HSE to ensure that these local and regional plans are consolidated and supported through policies and plans at national level to ensure the most effective response to the winter challenges to unscheduled care provision.   

As part of Budget 2019, an additional €10m in funding is being provided in 2018 to anticipate and manage critical demand pressures for health service, most particularly in respect of emergency pressures in the initial and latter parts of the year. This funding will focus on initiatives to enable the hospital system to de-escalate before Christmas.   Supporting patients in the over 75 age group will be a priority, with measures to respond to surge in demand with home support packages, transitional care beds, GP out-of-hours and aids and appliances to support the journey home of patients following a hospital stay.  

I have asked that there be a significant uplift in the provision of social care measures to promote hospital discharging in the first quarter of 2019 in response to the expected surge in demand after the Christmas period.

Improving access to health services is a key priority in 2019. In the first quarter of 2019, in the region of 80 additional beds will be brought on stream, including an additional 30-bed ward in Our Lady of Lourdes Drogheda, a 40-bed modular ward block in South Tipperary General Hospital, and four high dependency beds in the Mater and Cork University Hospital respectively.  In addition, the new ED planned for Our Lady of Lourdes Drogheda is due to open early in 2019.

A further €10 million will be invested next year to enable additional beds to be opened to alleviate pressure on Emergency Departments for Winter 2019/20 and the years ahead, on foot of the recommendations in the Health Service Capacity Review. The Department of Health will finalise the details of this investment, in consultation with the HSE.

Minister Daly has established a Working Group to undertake an independent expert review of delayed discharges, which can impact on patient flow and ED performance. This Group is due to report back to him by October 2018.