Reilly ‘finds’ €18m to try to tackle A&E overcrowding and waiting lists

An €18m intervention fund has been set up as the latest initiative in tackling the politically sensitive and enduring issues of emergency department overcrowding and excessive patient waiting times.

The fund comes just two years after the government set up a Special Delivery Unit (SDU) tasked with doing just that and at a time when a number of hospitals have been ordered to slow down on scheduled surgery.

A spokesperson for Health Minister James Reilly said the directive to slow down elective procedures followed a spike in activity and an increase in hospital admissions due to “seasonal factors” such as respiratory illness.

Five hospitals with recurring trolley problems and long patient waiting times will be scrutinised as part of a new National Intervention Strategy, which will involve teams of between five and 10 people from the SDU carrying out day-long site visits, starting this week and continuing over the next five weeks.

They include Cork University Hospital, Beaumont Hospital and the Mater Hospital in Dublin, the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Dooradoyle, Co Limerick, and University Hospital Galway.

“The teams will analyse what is happening on the ground and agree a plan of action on the day with the hospital CEO,” Dr Reilly’s spokesman said. The team will return two weeks later to see if the proposed “tweaks” are working and to “performance manage” the “tweaks” with each of the hospitals.

How this differs from the work of the SDU was unclear last night. That unit has been objectively examining individual hospitals in terms of demand and capacity since Sept 2011 and in particular, eight hospitals responsible for almost 60% of the trolley waiting problem, including the five above.

The SDU has, in the past, given funding to individual hospitals, although not in the form of monies from a specially-created fund.

Where the €18m budget for the new fund came from at a time when the HSE is under severe pressure was also unclear last night.

Dr Reilly’s spokesman said it was “identified in the overall resources of the HSE”.

As of May 2, 717 patients were waiting 12 months or more for elective surgery against a target of no patient waiting longer than eight months this year.