Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies for their contributions. We are all aware of people's concerns and frustrations regarding the number of patients on trolleys, the overcrowded conditions in which they wait for treatment and the difficulties in moving patients from acute care to long-term, community or home care. My colleague, the Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, has spoken in detail on this issue and today updated the House on the range of measures being undertaken to address long waiting times and access issues in emergency departments and across our acute hospital services. The Government's commitment to address overcrowding is clearly reflected in the significant additional funding we provided last year and will provide this year. That extra investment has been used to support initiatives to increase hospital bed numbers, provide additional services to support early discharge of patients and help to reduce waiting lists for planned care so that today's cancelled operations do not become tomorrow's emergency presentations. Those extra resources are having an effect and we are seeing improvements.

However, we need to build long-term sustainability for our health service and establish full year-round demand and capacity planning. This must be supported by integrated care programmes between hospitals and social and primary care services. It is essential that the majority of people's care needs are met in the community setting and we are building towards that. In primary and community care, the roll-out of community intervention teams has provided care closer to patients in their own homes and communities. Community intervention teams are specialist nurse-led health professional teams which provide a rapid response for patients who need acute care in a short period of time. Care may be given in the patient's home, other residential settings or in primary care centres. Team members work closely with hospital and community clinicians to provide an integrated health care service. I have seen the system in action in my own community, particularly at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, and it works very well. In addition, the establishment of the college hospital transitional care unit has alleviated a great deal of pressure on Our Lady of Lourdes.

Community intervention teams help to alleviate the pressures on emergency departments by preventing unnecessary hospital admission or attendance and enabling early discharge of patients from hospitals, freeing up beds for other patients. The teams are having a real impact on patient care. Between January and October 2015, use of their services increased by nearly 30% compared with the previous year. Referrals from emergency departments and hospitals increased by some 21% and referrals from GPs by 47%.

GPs and potential patients would be advised and encouraged to make use of other facilities that are available, such as medical assessment units, minor injury units, urgent care centres and doctor on call services, to allow emergency departments to focus on patients who really need emergency critical care.

Hospital groups are being established in line with the Government's programme for reform of the health service. The objective is to ensure we have a health service that has the resources it needs, uses them efficiently and puts the interests of patients first.

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