Francis Noel Duffy (Dublin South West, Green Party)
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711. To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the long wait times facing attendees of Tallaght University Hospital's accident and emergency department; and his views on the actions being taken to alleviate this pressure. [59414/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I am aware of the current pressures facing Tallaght University Hospital and I wish to acknowledge the distress overcrowded Emergency Departments cause to patients, their families, and frontline staff working in very challenging conditions in the hospital.

We are experiencing a very challenging start to winter, and already our Emergency Departments are experiencing high levels of daily presentations and congestion.

The HSE Winter Plan for 2022-23 was published on the 11th of October. The Plan is supporting acute and community services this winter to respond to anticipated high levels of emergency attendances and admissions across the acute sector, long waiting times in EDs, and high occupancy rates in acute hospital settings.

The plan is estimated to cost up to €169 million to implement. Key measures of the plan include:

- the recruitment of 51 emergency medicine consultants and associated support staff

- an overall recruitment of an additional 608 whole time equivalents of a mix of different professions across the hospital system

- increased community intervention teams, GP supports and out of hours services to reduce the need for attendances at EDs

- increased community services for mental health, disability and palliative care

- increased community and acute diagnostics

- expansion of ambulance services, including the completion of 9 Pathfinder teams to improve ambulance turnaround times

- a fund to support local, site-specific initiatives

The Winter Plan 2022/23 adopts a bottom-up approach with bespoke local plans that seek to address hospital-specific issues in conjunction with Community Healthcare Organisations.

In relation to the particular query raised regarding the actions being undertaken at Tallaght University Hospital, as this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.