Yesterday marked something of a milestone for the health service. For 50 days in the past three months, the number of delayed transfers of care has exceeded 500 patients across acute hospitals. For 50 days, there have been over 500 people waiting and ready to leave acute hospitals but cannot. They need step-down care, specialised beds, home care packages and nursing homes. These people need care that would cost a lot less than being in an acute hospital bed. Of course, all of this is taking place at a time when the HSE has overspent for the first quarter of this year, the Minister for Health is telling us that we need another €300 million in the health service for this year and the medical board at University Hospital Limerick is saying that there is a very real risk to patient safety there right now. When I talk to hospital managers across the country, they are telling me of closed step-down beds and repeated business cases being submitted but going nowhere.

Are alarm bells going off at the moment with regards to the health budget and the needs that are there? What plans does the Minister specifically have for step-down beds?

I thank the Deputy. I have not said anything about a supplementary budget. That was reported based on last year's, so I have no idea where that is coming from.

Taking the case of Limerick, there were 20 delayed transfers of care there yesterday. Over the past ten days, Limerick has ranged from having 15 people on trolleys to 70 people on trolleys, at an average of about 30 to 40 each day. I was in Clare on Monday. The community supports are just as important in Clare to take the pressure off Limerick as anything else and I noticed that, on the same day I was in Clare talking about the development of care there, the Limerick doctors were highlighting patient safety issues. The reality is that if someone turns up to the medical assessment unit in Ennis in the morning and needs an urgent CT scan, it will be read by a radiographer in Limerick, but if someone turns up to the medical assessment unit in Ennis in the afternoon instead of the morning and needs an urgent CT scan, it will not be read by the radiographer in Limerick. Instead, the patient will be transferred by ambulance to the emergency department in Limerick to have the scan there. There are still things that do not make sense and need to be fixed. Processes need to change to take the pressure off Limerick and other hospitals. A big part of that is investing in the community and step-down beds, as the Deputy said.