Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 11 May 2005
109 Ms B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children if she will elaborate on the recent plan announced by the HSE to move additional beds into existing wards; if the staffing implications of this decision have been considered; if assessment of the safety implications has been carried out; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15324/05]
View answerThe Health and Safety Authority recommended that the Health Service Executive determine, on a hospital-by-hospital basis after undertaking the necessary risk assessment and staff consultation, whether extra capacity can be achieved within existing units. The National Hospitals Office has asked hospital managers to examine the potential for using the total hospital capacity, including in-patient wards for patients who require admission in an attempt to alleviate pressure on the accident and emergency department. As I advocated in the House this week, I favour that measure being taken as a response to patients' needs where overcrowding occurs.
It is a matter for each individual hospital to exercise its own judgment on how to reduce health and safety risks within it. In doing so, hospital managers have been asked to have regard to international best practice in areas such as improving work-flow issues and increasing the use of more appropriate community-based interventions to reduce the pressure on accident and emergency units.
To assist those hospitals experiencing continuing pressures on the emergency service, the NHO is in the process of seeking tenders from companies who are expert in the area of work-flow management to carry out a review of ten hospitals to determine what internal efficiencies could be achieved to improve patient flow and reduce overcrowding.
