Taskforce set to tackle A&E overcrowding

Varadkar wants to make serious dent ‘once and for all’ in the problem besetting hospitals nationwide

Health Minister Leo Varadkar says he wants to make a serious dent “once and for all” in overcrowding at hospital emergency departments.

Convening a taskforce yesterday to find long-term solutions to overcrowding, he said the issue had reversed much of the progress achieved since the change of government.

“We cannot rely solely on intensive short-term solutions if we are going to manage access to emergency and acute care,” he said.

“What I am trying to do here is convene an emergency department taskforce involving all the stakeholders to come up with a plan to really put a serious dent in this problem once and for all.

“But I am going to need the support of management and the backing of the frontline to really make a difference,” he said.

The taskforce is chaired by Dr Tony O’Connell, HSE national director of acute hospital services, and includes service providers, union representatives, and HSE officials.

It will meet on a monthly basis and, where possible, be attended by Mr Varadkar.

The HSE will be working on an action plan to be produced early next year to specifically address emergency issues.

The Department of Heath said it is intended to achieve a “significant reduction” in trolley waits next year.

“This is not just about committees or forums. We have already invested an extra €25m in new nursing home places; in new community beds; in more home care packages,” Mr Varadkar said.

As a result of the measure and because it was almost Christmas, the number of people on trolleys had gone down this week.

There were 297 people on trolleys in emergency departments (248) and in wards (49) yesterday, according to the trolley watch published by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.

Mr Varadkar said some hospital efficiencies had been achieved but more are needed.

Mr Varadkar said some waiting lists were disimproving. However, the HSE 2015 service plan provides for an additional 20,000 day cases and he said that should help.

Asked if the waiting figures were being “massaged”, Mr Varadkar said that was not true. “I have absolutely no interest in pretending that things are better in the health service than they really are.”

He said the information published in newspapers over the weekend was information provided by the HSE at the request of his department to the Fianna Fáil health spokesman, Billy Kelleher.

“If you are trying to hide something, you don’t give it to the Fianna Fáil spokesperson for health. So nobody has been trying to hide anything here.”