Health service trolleys and beds
Deputy Doherty attacked severe trolley overcrowding, especially at University Hospital Limerick, and pressed repeatedly for funding more beds. The Minister accepted the situation was unacceptable, cited recent improvements and extra capacity already provided, but insisted further reforms and measures were also needed. The Ceann Comhairle twice intervened as the exchange became confrontational.
We have a half an hour. There will be a maximum of one minute per question and I hope the answers will be less than a minute long.
Comment on this
The Government's disastrous mismanagement of our health service hit a new low this week. A staggering 150 patients were on trolleys in University Hospital Limerick yesterday morning in what is being described as the worst day for the hospital in its history since 2006. Yesterday morning, the INMO recorded 710 patients on trolleys and without a bed in our hospitals. We know what is needed to end the trolley crisis. Our hospitals are short 1,000 beds and need 500 more each year to keep pace with demand. Officials in the Department of Health and the HSE have identified sites and suppliers for these 1,500 beds but the Minister's Government has its head in the sand and will not fund them. Will the Minister reverse his disastrous decision to underfund the health service in budget 2024 and will he fund the 1,500 beds so that we never again have to see 710 people on trolleys, each of whom has a story to break your heart?
Comment on this
That number of people on trolleys is not acceptable to the Government, to the Minister for Health or to the HSE. Looking at the overall number of people on trolleys in emergency departments, we have seen a significant improvement. That is not the case in Limerick. The Minister was in touch with Bernard Gloster, CEO of the HSE, yesterday to see what further measures could be implemented to make progress. UHL's hospital group and the hospital itself have made progress on reducing waiting lists for certain procedures. That should be acknowledged. I thank the staff for all of the work they do but the situation in the emergency department there is not acceptable to the Government. In addition to the increased investment-----
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-----we have provided more than 1,000 extra people in one hospital since 2019 and opened 150 additional beds, including 98 in UHL itself. There is also another 96-bed block under construction and planning for a further 96 beds is under way.
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Why will you not fund the beds? That was the question.
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The number of staff and the number of beds have increased but-----
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The Minister obviously did not hear the question.
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-----that has to coincide with reforms at group level.
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The Deputy is the Minister for Finance and he will not fund the beds.