Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support Deputy Billy Kelleher's motion regarding the Health Service Executive's service plan for 2014. The plan is not adequate to meet the growing demands on the health services, as is evident from what is happening in hospital emergency departments throughout the State. I would be failing my constituents if I did not mention the busy 24-hour emergency unit at Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe. Ballinasloe Town Council is seeking clarification on the status of the hospital, which is currently a level three facility. The council is anxious to allay concerns in this regard and to remind the HSE and this House of the guarantees and promises given regarding the retention and upgrading of services in Ballinasloe. It is requesting a guarantee from the HSE that there are no plans to cut services at the emergency unit. The status of the hospital is of vital importance to the services it provides not only to people in Ballinasloe and County Galway, but to a broad hinterland which includes Roscommon, Clare, Tipperary, Offaly, Longford, Westmeath and other counties.

Another issue of concern is the forthcoming controversial report that is expected to recommend the downgrading of the maternity unit at Portiuncula Hospital and the transfer of services to Galway city. This proposed amalgamation was reported in last week's edition of The Connacht Tribune. It is very difficult to see how Ballinasloe could, as proposed, retain a midwife-led service after the main maternity operation has transferred to Galway. Portiuncula Hospital has scored very well for perinatal care on the Rate My Hospital website and accommodates more than 2,000 births per year. I understand representatives of HSE management said at a recent Oireachtas committee meeting that they would like to roll out a national perinatal service but are not in a position to do so.

Given the ongoing speculation regarding potential cost-cutting measures, hospitals throughout the country would like to know what funding they will receive in 2014. Like all public representatives in Galway, I hope we will discover at the meeting taking place this coming Friday what the position is in regard to the hospitals in the region. The downgrading of mental health services at St. Brigid's Hospital in Ballinasloe has already led to great upset and protests locally. Any attempt to reduce the maternity service at Portiuncula Hospital will meet similar strong resistance. In a week when there was good news regarding the clinical trials to manufacture stem cells at Galway University Hospital, the local media were more concerned with the cancellation of all non-urgent surgical procedures scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week and the hospital's refusal to say how many patients are affected. The article in The Connacht Tribune was entitled "Galway surgeries cancelled due to Emergency Dept overcrowding".

Specialist trainees in emergency medicine have written to the Health Information and Quality Authority to highlight the continuing and unacceptable overcrowding in emergency departments throughout the country and the risks arising for patients and staff as a consequence. There must be an effective system of planning to address emergency department overcrowding. The Irish Association for Emergency Medicine has pointed to several causes of this overcrowding, including fewer beds, inefficient use of beds, reduced staff numbers and lack of access to long-term community care. Until solutions are found to these problems, emergency department overcrowding will continue to be a problem. The association has said it is time for the HSE and its special delivery unit to adopt a zero tolerance policy when it comes to overcrowding. The reality, however, is that the 2014 service plan envisages catering for fewer inpatients, outpatients and day cases in hospitals, in a context where the HSE initially told the Government that it anticipated needing €545 million to provide all the services it considers necessary this year.

The evidence of a shortfall in funding is clear across the health sector. Every public representative knows there is increased demand for dental treatment services, for instance, which will require additional funding. There has been a long campaign for an ambulance service in north Galway. I was one of several public representatives who organised petitions to have the ambulance base located in Tuam. We expected a 24-hour service, but what we received is a day service which is not yet operational. There is not even a timetable available. On the one hand we are told there is an embargo on recruitment and, on the other, that there are staff willing to transfer to provide the service. In the meantime we can only wait.

It is time now to review the situation in every county. There is much talk about reconfiguration of hospitals from Galway up to Donegal. What I find difficult to accept, however, is the lack of equity and fairness in the health service plan. This inequity is having a particular impact on rural areas, and especially on older people living in rural areas. The plan does not address the serious deficiencies in services, of which I have had time to mention only a few. I ask, in particular, that the emergency department issue be investigated by the Department.

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