Up to 15 urgent care centres will be set up across the State to supplement accident and emergency services and alleviate overcrowding in existing hospital emergency departments if Fine Gael and Labour succeed in forming the next government, the two parties said yesterday.
They also promised to build community nursing facilities on the grounds of public hospitals which would provide 1,500 beds.
These would provide step-down facilities for those no longer in need of acute hospital care.
In addition they said drunks in A&E would be sent to special supervised "wet rooms" after they were medically assessed. This would ensure they did not disturb ill patients.
They also promised to put a system in place which would ensure those with minor injuries attending A&E could be seen quickly, as would people who had already been seen by a GP who determined they were in need of hospitalisation.
The two main Opposition parties launched their joint plan in Dublin and pledged that solving the problem of patients having to spend long periods on trolleys in A&E would be their top priority.
The two-year plan will cost €575 million to put in place and to keep it going will cost another €180 million a year.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the plan contained simple, basic, common-sense measures which could be implemented within two years. Despite all the "tough talking" by Government, problems in A&E remained, he said.
Referring to the fact that a nurse at Dublin's Mater hospital recently had her jaw broken by "a hanger-on", he promised that security at A&E departments would also be stepped up and their levels of cleanliness improved.
The controversial idea of fining drunks who turned up in A&E, promised at the Fine Gael ardfheis, has however been dropped from the joint plan.
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said the Government had had nine years and billions of taxpayers money to tackle the A&E crisis but most of the money had been "wasted".
The urgent care centres will cost €100 million and will be open out of hours, providing an alternative to A&E for those with relatively minor medical and surgical problems.
They will have beds in which patients can be kept under observation.
The two parties also plan to provide more acute hospital beds but details of how many will be outlined in another document to be published in coming months.
Last night a spokesman for Minister for Health Mary Harney said there was nothing new in the A&E plan devised by Fine Gael and Labour.
Later in a statement Ms Harney said the Government and the HSE continued to give top priority to improving A&E services. Waiting times for patients attending A&E were down, more than 500 new long-term care beds had been acquired so far this year and hospital hygiene was demonstrably improving, she said.