Frank Feighan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being late. The former Taoiseach Brian Cowen once referred to the Department of Health as "Angola" because there were so many landmines going off. I appreciate that the witnesses do a great job and work very hard in very difficult circumstances. However, it sometimes seems that the Department of Health, those working for the health services, such as doctors and consultants, and HIQA do not follow up on their convictions and leave politicians holding the line. Perhaps the press does not listen to them but they should state what it the best approach for our health services. It should not be left to politicians to hold the line.

I come from Roscommon and at the mere mention of Roscommon County Hospital, people say "Oh my God". Roscommon county has a population of a little over 50,000, with just over 5,000 living in Roscommon town. Those living in north Roscommon, where I live, travel to Sligo for treatment, while the people of south Roscommon go to Ballinasloe. Therefore, there are approximately 25,000 people living in the catchment area for the hospital. The accident and emergency department at the hospital had no cardiac surgeon, no paediatric surgeon, nobody to incubate and no anaesthetist for overnight cover. How can that be called an accident and emergency department?

I was in Dublin just over two years ago discussing this with representatives of the Department of Health. Everyone told us why the accident and emergency service could not remain in the hospital. The consultants wrote that the department was unsafe. HIQA said that the consultants could not remain in the department because they would be de-skilled. Then all hell broke loose and everyone went to ground. The Department of Health did not get the message out. HIQA decided that it would not follow up on what it had said at the meeting because it did not want to be political. The consultants who wrote the letter said nothing and the GPs and doctors all went to ground. They left this unfortunate politician to hold the line. I know that everyone here will agree, privately, that it was the right decision to make. It would have been crazy to allow the accident and emergency department to remain open. That is irrelevant, however, because the people of Roscommon think that people will die. Nobody has died in two and a half years and at least 50 lives have been saved because there is an air ambulance in place. Paramedics and advance paramedics are saving lives.

The Department and others running our health services must stand up sometimes and not leave the politicians holding the line. I will always be the politician who closed the hospital. The hospital is actually twice as busy. The urgent care centre is as busy as ever and by the time we are finished, the hospital will be five times busier and twice as big. The witnesses here know that and I know that. How can we get that message out? It should not be left to the politicians to hold the line because nobody believes politicians or even wants to believe them.

In terms of the media, both local and national, it is a race to the bottom. They want to report the worst case scenario. I am disappointed in the Department of Health, HIQA, GPs and consultants. There is a saying, "What is the difference between a consultant and God? God doesn't think he's a consultant". The witnesses here have a job to do. I would like to hear their observations on that. What happened was they allowed a vacuum to be filled. I am not blaming them. I am blaming the whole system. I am blaming politicians too. Politicians will try to take credit for some things. They should stand up. We need impartial people to come out and state the facts. That is what happened in Mallow.

The situation regarding the accident and emergency department in Mallow was very similar but three consultants there came out and said that closing the department would be the best move in the context of patient safety. They said that the people should go to Cork, end of story. In Roscommon County Hospital, the three consultants wrote a letter stating that the department was only useful when, probably once in every four years, there might be a car crash within a mile of the hospital. I asked them why they did not say something when 5,000 people were outside the hospital, protesting at the closure of the department. They said it was more than their lives were worth to say something. All I am saying is that the witnesses have a job to do and it is a difficult one. However, there are times when they cannot leave politicians alone, defending decisions.

The air ambulance service is an enormous success and must be retained. Now it is time to get an air ambulance in the North too. The air ambulance from Athlone will cover most of the south. An air ambulance in the North could serve the people north of Athlone. This is cross-Border co-operation that will save lives. It is imperative to examine the possibility of having two air ambulances.

I am sorry to have spoken at length earlier. I was not having a go at the witnesses but was saying that something must happen and the witnesses cannot leave politicians high and dry.