Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said there has been "extensive planning" within the HSE and the Department of Health to prevent an overcrowding surge in hospital emergency departments over the Easter weekend.
Mr Donnelly said that he is "engaged" with the HSE and the Department to make sure that whatever steps are needed are put in place within the hospital system.
His comments follow a warning from the INMO at the weekend that more measures will be needed to ensure a bank holiday surge does not happen.
"I am assured that there are multiple measures in place just to make sure that the staff are there, staff in the emergency departments, access to GP on call where that’s needed, probably most importantly discharge options," the minister said.
Speaking during a visit to Kilkenny to officially open the Newark Primary Care Centre, Mr Donnelly said: "Really what a lot of this comes down to is flow within the hospitals.
He said: "A patient on a trolley is essentially a patient who's been admitted, who’s waiting on a bed in a ward. In order to have those obviously we need to have discharge options.
"The HSE is taking an all-of-health system approach to that in terms of pre-hospital care, care within the hospital and, probably most importantly to be honest, discharge options.
"We are very focused on more beds. You will be aware we’ve added nearly a thousand extra beds since covid arrived. Several hundred more are going to be added this year and on top of that I’m working across Government to put in place an accelerated bed-building programme."
Mr Donnelly added: "What I would like to see is a programme that provides an extra 1,500 beds on top of the thousand that are already in place and several hundred this year. That really would make a big difference."
He said "it’s not all about new beds," but also changes to working practices, including reforms such as the new consultant contract, and others.
He said: "We have to see discharge teams available to those consultants, we need access for patients to radiology when they’re in the hospitals, so part of this is about extra capacity, putting in extra capacity at record levels, part of is about reform, the kind of reform we’re looking at through the new consultant contrast, through investment in community care."
Asked if he is worried about hospital overcrowding this weekend, the minister said: "I am engaged with the HSE and the Department to make sure that the steps, the measures that need to be in place are put in place."
