Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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713. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to solve the trolley crisis while ignoring osteoporosis which is one of the most frequent reasons for admission to public hospitals and one of the highest bed occupancy requirements. [36462/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond to the deputy directly.

We are making progress in reducing the number of patients on trolleys nationwide.

There has been a significant reduction in the cumulative daily 8am trolley count over the first eight months of 2024, with numbers down 11% (over 9,000) when compared to the same period in 2023.

The improved performance has been driven by the significant increase in capacity under this government - with an additional 28,346 people working in our health service since the end of 2019 and 1,195 acute hospital beds and hundreds of community beds added since the end of 2019.

This progress is being driven by the ongoing implementation of the Urgent and Emergency Care Operational Plan 24/25 (the UEC Plan), which was presented to Government in July.

The UEC Plan 2024/25 includes targeted actions and reform initiatives such as:

• The operation of 10-bedded Virtual Wards in University Hospital Limerick (UHL) and in St Vincent's University Hospital (SVUH), scaling to 25 virtual beds for each site by year end to deliver 50 virtual beds in total.
• Providing additional and extended hours for senior decision makers and staff integral to supporting 7/7 operations.
• Standardising the opening hours of all Injury Units (IUs) to provide a 7-day service, 8am to 8pm including Bank Holidays.