Written answers
Thursday, 9 November 2023
Department of Health
Hospital Overcrowding
Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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23. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide details on his Department's latest work in tackling overcrowding in hospitals. [48866/23]
Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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26. To ask the Minister for Health to outline his Department’s efforts to reduce the number of patients on hospital trollies this Winter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49045/23]
Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 23 and 26 together.
Urgent and Emergency Care pressures are no longer just experienced during winter periods and prolonged levels of high daily presentations and congestion are now being experienced throughout the year.
While significant investment has been driven through Winter Planning and National Service Plans over the past three years, a new approach to UEC planning in now required in response the changing demands.
This approach is twofold:
- The delivery of an Urgent and Emergency Care Operational Plan for 2023, which was signed off by Government at the end of July; and
- The delivery of a 3-year multi-annual UEC Strategy, which is currently being prepared for government.
Key Performance Indicators
The UEC Operational Plan 2023 will focus on improving four key performance indicators and has set the following targets:
- No patient aged 75 years or over to wait more than 24 hours in an ED;
- The number of patients with Delayed Transfers of Care to be at, or below, 440 by the end of 2023;
- The average trolley count at 8am not to exceed 320 each month; and
- The average inpatient length of stay for those over 14 days not to exceed 28 days.
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