Charles Flanagan
Ceist:18 Mr. Flanagan asked the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to a serious shortage of beds in accident and emergency units; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Hospital Beds.
Bernard J. Durkan
Ceist:31 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Health the proposals, if any, he has in regard to hospital bed availability and support services with reference to the need to ensure ready access for various operations; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Nora Owen
Ceist:48 Mrs. Owen asked the Minister for Health if he has satisfied himself that his Department and the health boards are equipped to deal with outbreaks of viruses such as Beijing flu.
Seymour Crawford
Ceist:63 Mr. Crawford asked the Minister for Health the steps, if any, he proposes to take to alleviate the acute bed shortage in accident and emergency units.
Bernard Allen
Ceist:160 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health if he has satisfied himself that there is sufficient vaccine available to counteract Beijing flu; and the steps, if any, that have been taken to ensure that adequate supplies of vaccine will be made available to the health boards.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 18, 31, 48, 63 and 160 together.
As Minister for Health, I am concerned to ensure that both the health boards and hospitals are equipped to respond to the demands which are placed upon them.
Deputies will be aware that the Government allocated £20 million this year for a major action programme to reduce waiting times in the areas of orthopaedic surgery, hip replacement and other procedures, ophthalmology, cataract, ear, nose and throat surgery, cardiac surgery, by-pass operations, vascular surgery, varicose veins and plastic surgery. The Government objective is to eliminate waiting lists in excess of 12 months in these specialties, and to set a maximum period of six months for children awaiting ENT or eye treatment. I am glad to say that substantial progress has been made towards achieving these objectives.
With regard to hospital accident and emergency departments, because of the nature of the work, it is not possible to predict what the workload of these departments will be at any particular time. At all times, however, priority is accorded to those patients most in need of immediate medical attention. Because of the unpredictable nature of the workload which may present, it can happen that on occasion patients must be placed in temporary accommodation pending the availability of a more appropriate bed. I can assure the Deputy that every effort is made to keep this practice to a minimum.
The situation in relation to the accident and emergency departments is exacerbated at times through, for instance, major accidents or epidemics such as the flu. Some of these departments particularly in Dublin have experienced difficulties from time to time because of the number of elderly people requiring attention. The difficulty here has not primarily been the provision of acute hospital beds but of insufficient step-down facilities for patients in need of a lower level of care.
The position regarding the accident and emergency departments is monitored by my Department on an ongoing basis. In this regard, shortly after coming into office, I approved a sum of £500,000 to provide an immediate response to a problem of this type.
Following further discussions in recent weeks, I have allocated an additional £250,000 to the Eastern Health Board to enable the pressures on the accident and emergency hospitals to be eased. This is being achieved through the placing of more than 100 patients from the six major accident and emergency hospitals in Dublin, who are no longer in need of acute hospital care, in step-down accommodation more appropriate to their condition.
To date the Eastern Health Board has placed 86 of these patients in step-down accommodation and a further 23 patients will be placed in the coming days. I am confident this action will greatly relieve the seasonal pressures on the hospitals.
I would like to assure the Deputies of my continuing concern that the accident and emergency hospitals in Dublin are enabled to respond effectively to the demands placed upon them and that I will continue to monitor the situation with a view to taking further action if required.
In relation to the Beijing flu, the possibility of an outbreak occurring here this year was indicated by the Department of Health as far back as April 1993 and the usual arrangements for ordering and distributing stocks of the vaccine were put in place. These consist of health boards distributing sufficient stocks to protect "at risk" persons on the GMS category and pharmacists ordering the holding stocks for their private patients.