Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

A record amount of funding is going into health, which means we are making progress in reducing the number of patients on trolleys nationwide. The Minister for Health chairs monthly meetings with senior HSE figures to drive improved performance. There has been a significant reduction in the cumulative daily 8 a.m. trolley count over the first eight months of 2024, with numbers down 11% to over 9,000 when compared with the same period. This has been achieved despite an increase in the number of patients presenting to emergency departments, with comparative analysis for January to August 2024 compared with the same period showing an increase of 9% in overall attendance. Far fewer older patients experienced long waiting lists in emergency departments this year, with the number of patients aged 75 or over waiting more than 24 hours falling by 13%. The Minister is doing everything he can to continue to reduce those numbers but overall we are making progress and want to do more.

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