Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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377. To ask the Minister for Health to provide an update on plans to ensure that all State-run hospitals operate a full seven days per week services; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14708/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for Government contains commitments to ensuring that a wider variety of healthcare services are available to the public in the evenings and weekends.

In line with these commitments, the HSE has begun the process of working to transition our health service to a 7-day service. In the first instance, Regional Leadership in the HSE have been asked to outline the key staff necessary to operate over a 7-day week.

By providing 7-day routine services in our hospitals we can improve the patient experience and enable faster discharges through the availability of consultants and other staff, labs and diagnostics across evenings and weekends

Many people will have had the experience of themselves, or a family member being kept in hospital over the weekend unnecessarily as there is no one to discharge them or to provide support services in the community.

A 7-day service will help to reduce our trolley numbers; will reduce the time patients spend in hospital unnecessarily; will speed up time for access to care; and can help in giving people alternative access to services in their communities and outside of acute settings.