Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 June 2012
594 Deputy Seán Kyne asked the Minister for Health if he will provide a progress report on the special delivery unit operating in Galway University Hospital and the impact it has had on waiting times, particular in emergency departments. [30921/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraImproving access for patients, to both unscheduled and scheduled care in hospitals across the country, is central to the role of the Special Delivery Unit . Since the SDU become operational in September 2011, it has worked with hospitals across the country, including University Hospital Galway. The hospital works closely with the SDU Liaison Officer and there are weekly meetings held with the management teams of both hospitals, along with management from the local community services. In addition to discussing current performance issues and trends, the Liaison Officer works with the hospitals to improve patient pathways and develop and improve operational issues.
While the provision of funding is not a core function of the SDU, there are limited resources available to assist hospitals to meet targets on unscheduled and scheduled care. For unscheduled care (emergency departments), funding was made available to University Hospital Galway as part of the successful SDU initiative in 2011 to ensure that the number of patients waiting in ED was kept to a minimum over the Christmas and New Year periods.
A limited amount of funding has also been made available in 2012 to assist the hospitals to meet their trolley wait targets. For University Hospital Galway, funding related to opening additional bed capacity for short-periods and also an initiative for hospital avoidance for older people run by the geriatricians. There was also an an initiative involving community and hospital liaison, weekend liaison nurses and home support, to enable earlier discharge home and avoid hospital admissions.
To date, the SDU interventions in relation to unscheduled care have reduced the number of patients waiting on trolleys in ED. In relation to University Hospital Galway, up to 8 June 2012, there has been a reduction of 8.7% in the numbers waiting on trolleys, compared with the same period in 2011.
For scheduled care (inpatient and day case surgery) last year, I instructed all hospitals that no person should be waiting more than 12 months for surgery by the end of the year. The scheduled care access targets set for public hospitals for 2012 are that no adult should wait longer than 9 months for surgery, no child should wait more than 20 weeks for surgery and no person requiring a routine GI endoscopy should wait more than 13 weeks.
This year the hospital is progressing towards the 2012 access targets, assisted by a targeted programme of support agreed between the hospital and the NTPF. This support is directed towards adult ENT, urology and GI endoscopy procedures and also towards paediatric ENT and general surgery. These are the areas where the greatest challenges, in terms of faster access times for procedures, exist.
