Duncan Smith
Question:176. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for Health his plans to tackle the ongoing trolley crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7725/22]
View answerTuesday, 15 February 2022
Questions (176)
Written answers
I wish to acknowledge the distress overcrowded Emergency Departments cause to patients, their families, and frontline staff working in very challenging conditions in hospitals throughout the country. The health sector is expecting to face significant challenges this winter in providing emergency care while also dealing with Covid-19. Emergency department attendances are close to 2019 levels, exceeding them at some sites, while the numbers of patients waiting on trolleys have been increasing steadily since June 2021.
I met with senior HSE management on the 9th February to discuss the current challenges facing emergency departments. They outlined some very specific challenges in the system at the moment. Higher than normal levels of attendance in recent weeks, combined with around 600 Covid-19 inpatients and 600 delayed transfers of care, is putting intense pressure on hospital capacity. It is increasingly difficult to discharge some patients who need nursing home or stepdown care due to the number of Covid-19 outbreaks in nursing homes. There are also difficulties in discharging some patients home due to issues with providing home care. These issues are compounded by the level of staff absenteeism related to Covid-19. I have requested the HSE to take all appropriate action to mitigate these challenges, as far as possible.
We have put significant resources into preparing the system for winter. 1,146 acute hospital beds were funded under last year’s Winter Plan and Budget 2021. To date, over 800 acute beds have opened since the 1st January 2020 across the hospital system, excluding critical care beds.
The HSE Winter Preparedness Plan for Winter 21/22 builds on the significant investment in last year’s Winter Plan and the additional capacity delivered in health services in 2021, and centres on three core objectives: ED avoidance, patient flow and hospital egress to mitigate the expected challenges in providing emergency care during winter while also continuing to respond to Covid-19.
The Plan recognizes that a whole system response is required and outlines how the HSE proposes to manage these challenges across primary, community and acute care including measures to allow the public system to access private healthcare capacity.
This plan endorses a home first approach, enabling and facilitating patients to receive the most appropriate care in their own homes and communities.
The Plan contains a number of initiatives to deliver its core objectives of ED avoidance by treating people at home or in the community and by allowing them to return home following hospitalisation quickly. These initiatives include:
- GP Liaison Nurses to manage direct referrals from GPs to ED;
- Geriatric Community Support;
- Enhancement and expansion of Frailty Intervention Therapy Team models;
- Community Response Teams (nursing and therapies);
- Community respiratory admission avoidance teams;
- Expansion of the National Ambulance Service Pathfinder initiative
- Additional home support hours and
- COPD outreach teams.