Emergency department overcrowding
Deputy Willie O'Dea asked when the promised 60-bed midwest unit would appear and whether it would be delayed by the children's hospital crisis. The Taoiseach said trolley numbers had fallen, overcrowding remained too high, and existing actions were reducing pressure.
One of the commitments in A Programme for a Partnership Government, on page 58 to be specific, is to reduce emergency department overcrowding. Yesterday there were 512 people on trolleys across the State. Of those, 69 were on trolleys in University Hospital Limerick. Will the Taoiseach tell the House when the new 60 bed unit, promised as a result of the reorganisation of accident and emergency services in the mid west, is going to materialise? Is it yet another project that will be put on the long finger, delayed or cancelled as a result of the children's hospital fiasco or for other reasons?
Comment on this
The number of patients on trolleys this morning was 326. That is a 20% reduction on this time last year. We know from January that the numbers were at their lowest for maybe three years. It looks like it may be the same for February's figures. Due to the actions taken by Government overcrowding is, thankfully, going down although nobody is denying for a second that it is far too high. Those actions include additional bed capacity and investment in primary care. I gave an answer to Deputy McDonald on that particular project yesterday.