MINISTER FOR HEALTH Stephen Donnelly has told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health that an emphasis on care in community and home settings is crucial to decreasing hospital overcrowding.

In his opening statement to the committee this morning, the minister said: 

“Not all of the solutions to overcrowding are found in the Emergency Departments or even in hospitals.”

Donnelly highlighted the length of hospital waiting times and the fact that waiting lists
for scheduled care increased by nearly 60% between 2015 and 2021.

The government allocated €363m to remove 1.66 million patients from waiting lists as part of its 2023 Waiting List Action Plan, he said, which is projected to result in a reduction of 10% to the number of people on waiting lists.

He added that a “multi-annual approach” was underway to achieve a maximum wait time of 10 and 12 weeks and that expanding Community Intervention Team (CIT) services was part of the solution.

CIT services provide an “integrated response to patients experiencing an acute episode of illness and facilitates the delivery of enhanced care in thecommunity or home setting”, the minister said.

“We are currently providing for further expansion of CITs across the country, with a particular focus on the Mid-West and North-West regions.”

“Over the last three years we have added nearly 1,000 hospital beds, 410 community beds and 65 critical care beds. 261 Acute beds and 16 Critical Care beds are expected to be constructed under the Capital Programme 2023.”

“In addition, I am in discussions with government colleagues on a proposal to expedite the construction and delivery of 1,500 additional hospital beds,” he added.

According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, there were 592 patients waiting for hospital beds yesterday, while Donnelly acknowledged the health service had “a long long way to go” before it could meet waiting list targets.

Sinn Féin spokesperson on health David Cullinane told the minister:

“There has been some reduction in wait times, that reduction is quite small compared to the growth of the waiting list that you outlined yourself from 2015.”

“In terms of acute hospital numbers in January 2020, it was 776,000. In March 2023 it was 885,000. That’s still a significant increase.”

Cullianne added that the number of patients of trolleys is “averaging now at about 560 patients a day, every day this month, it’s almost the new normal”.

“There’ll be a long, long, long way to go before we get anywhere near meeting the Sláintecare targets, would you accept that?”

Donnelly replied that he would “fully accept” those figures but added “it is important that we say that very significant progress is being made”.

The minister said that annual funding of €195 million has been allocated to the continued implementation of the Enhanced Community Care (ECC) Programme and that 94 of the planned 96 Community Health Networks (CHNS) are now established.