The delays experienced by patients in some A&E units are "totally unacceptable to the Government", the Minister of State at the Department of Health has said.
Brian Lenihan was addressing the Irish Nurses' Organisation annual conference in Cavan today.
Mr Lenihan said the Government recognised "the very real problems" that exist at certain A&E departments but he said they were complex problems which required a range of actions to address them.
"The problems will be solved with a combination of reform, resources, management actions and improved efficiency, tailored to each individual hospital.
"Last year, more than 1.2 million people attended accident and emergency departments nationally, an average of nearly 3,300 a day. The key fact is that the vast majority of patients attending A&E do not require admission to an acute hospital bed and are satisfactorily cared for and looked after in our A&E departments. However, there is a serious problem in some of our A&E departments for patients waiting admission to an inpatient bed," Mr Lenihan said.
He said the Health Services Executive was setting targets for each hospital to drive continuous improvement in waiting times.
"Consistent with international standards, its ultimate objective is to ensure no patient will wait any longer than six hours to be admitted after the clinical decision to admit has been made."
Mr Lenihan said the Government had, for some time, been conscious of the need to restructure and reform the health services.
He also told the nurses' conference that current health funding had increased by 10.2 per cent from €11.9 billion since 2005 and by 251 per cent since 1997.
