Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The HSE is running from one disaster to another. The budget overrun last year of up to €1 billion still goes unrecognised by the State as though it were a few hundred euro. Overcrowding in our hospitals in 2023 was the worst on record. The number of patients on trolleys in University Hospital Limerick in 2023 was 21,143; Cork University Hospital, 12,487; University Hospital Galway, 8,914; Sligo University Hospital, 8,094; and St. Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin, 6,555. These are astonishing figures, which go unnoticed year after year by this and previous Governments, leaving HSE hospital staff burned out. The shortage of GPs is a cause of huge concern, with many GPs reluctant to take on new medical card patients as it is simply not viable. In my constituency of Cork South-West, SouthDoc services are gone in most parts of west Cork. The only remaining SouthDoc service is in Bantry. Dentists are reluctant to take new medical card patients as it is no longer viable for them. In west Cork, the school dentist practices in Castletownbere, Dunmanway, Schull and Skibbereen have been closed down leaving parents travelling all over the country to get dental services for their children. Podiatry services for older people are on a very limited basis, now disqualifying many elderly people who genuinely need foot care. We have a severe shortage of HSE occupational therapists, OTs, forcing people to pay for a vital service that many cannot afford. We have huge waiting lists for physiotherapy, forcing those who again cannot afford it to pay for a private practitioner. The home help situation is at an all-time low, with carers who mind loved ones pleading for more home help hours and more patients awaiting discharge, who cannot go home as they await a homecare package to be put in place due to a lack of home help services. Now, changes to home help services in parts of west Cork will see people who had two home-helpers a week now having four without any extension of time, which upsets many people because they have built up relationships with their home helpers. Parents of children with additional needs are now waiting lengthy periods to get services such as OT, speech and language therapy and psychological and psychiatric services. Respite for carers of adults with intellectual and physical disabilities has not been available since before the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is a factual list that surely every politician has. Last week I spoke with a man in St. Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin who spent 18 hours in a chair and the following five days on a trolley. I also spoke to a Clonakilty lady who spent nine days on a trolley in CUH last week. Who is in charge? Where is the HSE budget going? Where did the €1 billion overspend go last year? Does the Tánaiste accept that the HSE, as a delivery vehicle for the services I mentioned, has failed the people miserably? Will we have any accountability?

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