Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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221. To ask the Minister for Health if she will report on the ongoing use of the full capacity protocol at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) and the continued overcrowding at UHL; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22415/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I would like to assure the deputy that every measure is being taken reduce overcrowding in our Emergency Departments including University Hospital Limerick.

We are making progress in reducing the number of patients on trolleys nationwide and intensive work is ongoing with the HSE in this regard. This reduction has been achieved despite a significant increase in the number of patients presenting to Emergency Departments, particularly in cohort of patients aged 75 years and older.

The improved performance seen in 2024 sustains the improvements achieved with the implementation of the 2023 UEC Operational plan. That plan has now been superseded by the UEC 2024-25 Plan, which was presented to Government in July last year.

Priority actions are set out under four operational pillars: Hospital avoidance, Emergency Department operations, In-hospital care delivery and Discharge management. The actions are focused on balancing system capacity and demand while optimising patient flow.

Amongst the initiatives involved in the plan are:

• Vaccine Preventable Illness: The HSE is promoting the uptake of Influenza, Measles and COVID-19 vaccinations to improve compliance for all target groups including Healthcare Workers Specialist Care in the Community• Community Specialist Teams (CSTs) for Chronic Disease Management to deliver 19,000 patient contacts each month. CSTs for Older Persons will deliver 11,750 patient contacts each month• GP Out of Hours Work with GP Out of Hours Services to maintain/increase GP OOH contacts and reduce the level of GP OOH referrals to EDs• NAS Care Pathways Maximize usage of existing NAS alternative care pathways• Injury Units to provide a 7-day service, 8am to 8pm including Bank Holidays• 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.

Each Hospital has systems and processes in place to manage the demand and capacity for acute inpatient care including current and predicted unscheduled and scheduled care activity in order to ensure there is timely access to care.In the event, that there is a demand-capacity mismatch, the local escalation plan will be invoked which encompasses the steps set out in the National System Wide Escalation Framework. This National Escalation Framework contains a series of tiered and incremental actions to be adapted and implemented in hospitals with an ED and in other wider local health services as part of an integrated health system response to periods of high pressure.The Full Capacity Protocol (FCP) is the final step in the Escalation Framework and is designed to act as a safety valve when ED functioning is compromised. The FCP involves a whole hospital approach including the placement of additional patients on wards and the cancellation of planned admissions.

In relation to the specific question of the current use of the FCP at UHL, as this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly.