The Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children, Ms Harney, yesterday welcomed the announcement by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) that it plans to carry out urgent safety inspections of every hospital accident and emergency unit in the State.
Ms Harney said that such a move had happened before on foot of complaints about individual units and she said that the intervention by the HSA could help examine issues regarding the management of facilities in hospitals.
"I very much welcome it. The Health and Safety Authority is there to ensure that every place of work operates to the highest possible standards - that includes hospitals and other health facilities," said Ms Harney, adding that it was important that clinicians and management work together to ensure effective running of hospitals.
"We've already heard from Dr Gleeson in Beaumont Hospital that there are alternative arrangements which he would like to see in the Beaumont facility that are currently not operating, so it may well be that as a result of this intervention that new practices can emerge, and I would welcome that very much, if that is the case."
Ms Harney rejected suggestions that the decision by the HSA to examine hospital conditions was an indictment of the state of the health system.
While it was well-known that there were pressure points in the system, it was working well in many respects, she said. She pointed out that the Government was investing over €11 billion a year in the health service which employed 120,000 people, and the service is currently carrying out one million procedures a year, though she conceded that there was pressure on accident and emergency units.
"There are pressure points, particularly at accident & emergency - there are a lot of people ending up there that shouldn't end up there, but unfortunately they don't have access to GP services. My commitment is to resolve those problems, that's why I took the job in the first place."
She reiterated her belief that €70 million she's earmarked for a 10-point plan to tackle the more immediate problems in the system will have an effect, though she cautioned that it's likely to be later in the year before the results become apparent.
And she also welcomed the "trolley watch" initiated in recent weeks by the Irish Nurses Organisation as providing important information to patients, the public and politicians so that results can be measured.
Ms Harney was speaking during a visit to Cork University Hospital where she inspected the facility's new accident & emergency unit which is due to open in March and a new day procedures unit which will open in 2006. The two units, which represent a combined investment of €24 million, are just two in a number of investments at Cork University Hospital which is also due to open a new €75 million maternity hospital in mid-2006.