Services at the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, incorporating the National Children's Hospital, Tallaght, are provided under an arrangement with the Eastern Regional Health Authority. My Department has, therefore, asked the regional chief executive of the authority to examine this issue and to reply to the Deputy directly.
I have identified the delivery of accident and emergency services as a priority area for attention. Many of the difficulties and delays experienced in emergency medicine, accident and emergency, departments reflect system-wide issues. It is, therefore, necessary to take a whole-system approach, involving primary care, acute care, and sub-acute and community care in tackling the problems in emergency medicine departments.
I have secured additional funding of €70 million in new current expenditure in 2005 to implement a number of initiatives to improve the delivery of emergency services. These include improvements in the following areas: patient flows through accident and emergency departments by developing and expanding minor injury units, chest pain clinics and respiratory clinics in hospitals; acute medical units for non-surgical patients; GP out-of-hours services; the physical environment for patients and staff including cleaning and security measures; direct access for GPs to diagnostic services; the availability of acute beds for emergency patients by sourcing capacity in the private nursing home sector for those patients who have completed their acute phase of treatment and expanded home care packages to support older people at home.
I am confident the measures I have announced will have a significant impact on the delivery of accident and emergency services.