Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 2 October 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion

Photo of Alan KellyAlan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It would help to take the pressure off what is going on there.

We need intermediate vehicles in order that people are not stuck inside for the weekends. The current way of transitioning people out of the hospital and into step-down facilities is not working. I am dealing with Maria Bridgeman and Colette Cowan all the time. They are two fantastic people and I have no issue with the management and the staff down there. They are working but they are working in an environment that is impossible. I ask Mr. Reid to please take this on board. He should trust me when I say that I will take this to another level. If I have to live inside the hospital, I will do it as an Opposition spokesperson.

With regard to gynaecological services in Letterkenny, the Minister has had correspondence on and is aware of a number of issues in respect of a case in 2017, some of which has been in the media and some of it which has not. There was another case in 2019 and a further case has been brought to my attention within the past 48 hours. Will the Minister indicate if he is going to launch an investigation into what has been happening up there or not? What has the Minister done with the information that has been provided to him over a number of years? I am aware of a case of a woman who has issues and is waiting for her situation to be dealt with in St. James's Hospital as a result of being pushed down from what happened in Letterkenny, over to Derry and now down to St. James's. This is on top of the two other cases of which the Minister is aware. I ask the Minister to please tell me that he is going to do something on it.

On the issue of medical cards for patients with terminal cancer I thank the Minister for meeting Mr. John Wall, who is a brilliant guy as we both agree. Mr. Wall was very happy to meet with the Minister, and fair play to the Minister. I have no issue there. The Minister, however, has a budget coming up in a week's time. The provision of funding in this regard would be small money in that context and unless the Minister provides funding in the budget, with all the will in the world he will probably not be the Minister in one year's time. He needs to provide for it in the budget. This is a real decision. It is small money. The 24-month profile is probably the way to go. It is an interim step. It seems like a cruel thing to say but this is a way to deal with it. I ask the Minister to put this into his budget.

The Minister has received a letter from Tony O'Reilly about his wife Julie O'Reilly. Julie was the lady who died from endometrial cancer and she was one of the 221. I will not get into the details here. Mr. O'Reilly has asked for an investigation into how his wife's medical details ended up with a newspaper. Mr. O'Reilly has written to the Minister about this. Personally, I would like to know how this happened also. It should not have happened. I have a copy of Mr. O'Reilly letter to hand, which the Minister has acknowledged. I ask that the Minister address this issue.

Will the Minister clarify how many women have had their Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, RCOG, results? As it will be over by the end of the month, surely the Department knows by now what percentage of the total have those results.

I am deeply worried by Mr. Reid's opening statement with regard to section 38 and section 39 organisations. This is not Mr. Reid's fault but it is his problem. Some of these are about to fall over.

If those organisations fall over the State suffers, and the people suffer to a point. This committee has been through this, as has the Committee of Public Accounts. We need to put this on a different footing. Somebody needs to stop this and turn it around. A good few of these organisations are getting loans just to stay afloat. This cannot continue. What is going to be done about it?

I have two final issues, one of which is the recruitment freeze. I have raised this question previously and we have all played games to the effect that there is no recruitment freeze, and others have also raised it. In effect, there is a recruitment freeze. As for control and expenditure discussions, I have heard the Minister say that one cannot win in this regard. It is a good kick-back argument, which I understand, but when it comes to front-line services and the issues I have just outlined in the mid-west, the reality is it is affecting front-line staff such as nurses and doctors. As with the issues mentioned by the Minister regarding the capital plan the two biggest jokes among the Minister's own staff, including management, is that the capital plan does not impact on capital projects down through the years. They just laugh at that. The second issue they laugh at is the idea that there is no recruitment freeze. The Minister's own people laugh at that; they do not believe it. When it comes to front-line staff, especially nursing and other posts, I ask the Minister to please show the necessary flexibility.

My last question is very important. I dealt with it in the committee last week and it relates to CervicalCheck and the audit. I could not get a clear answer last week-----

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.