Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses from UHL. It is good to see such a good crowd here. I know most of them and have tried to deal constructively with them over the past number of years. I put on record my thanks to the staff who work in the hospital from hospital porters to cleaners, those in the kitchens, doctors, non-consultant doctors, management and those who work in administration - everybody who works in that hospital. It is a very difficult environment and I want to put that on record. The hospital has been given a task that is really difficult. I have problems with some of the management and some of the way it works but I believe the hospital has been dealt a hard deck to deal with because the sums do not add up. It must be put on record that we closed three emergency departments. This is the core of what happened. We closed the departments in St John's Hospital, Nenagh and Ennis and tried to integrate everybody into UHL, in what we were told at the time would be a centre of excellence.

Unfortunately, the funding to do that was never delivered. My understanding, from the latest figures I have been given by the HSE and the Minister for Health, is that we are short 200 beds and 68 non-consultant doctors, which is the core of the problem we are looking at. UHL, as Senator Conway has just said, has the highest level of overcrowding by far of any hospital in the State. We are looking at a figure of 13,136 people on trolleys this year to date. We still have three very difficult months to go until the end of the year, so we will potentially hit 16,000 or 17,000, if not more, and I am concerned that the winter will be very difficult for us.

Professor Cowan in her opening statement said that "UHL will continue to have a shortfall of 87 beds" if the HSE delivers the 96-bed unit, which will not be delivered for two years. She also put a line into her statement about the shortage based on comparable hospitals, which should frighten all of us. She is basically saying healthcare need is benchmarked against comparable hospitals. She is actually saying, therefore, that the 96 beds will bring us only to where we are at the minute and will not take account of other stuff coming down the line. We are looking at delivering 48 additional beds in the coming years and we have a trolley crisis now.

What is the Government's plan and what is the HSE's plan? What has the HSE asked the Government to do? I am not too bothered about what has happened - well, I am bothered about what has happened in the past, but it is the past. I want to look at where we are now and where we can get to. I deal with people, as the witnesses all do, every single day in that hospital. I deal with the families in distress. There are incredible waiting times for people. We have had stories of people with dementia exiting the hospital and going missing for a while. I have dealt recently with three families who have had family members with dementia leave the hospital. It is very traumatic for their families and, in fairness, for the staff as well. In Limerick - and I would not be the only person to say this - people are not going to the ED. They are afraid to do so. Older people, especially, do not want to go there because they know they will be there for hours and hours.

What immediate steps are being taken to address the overcrowding in the here and now? The 48 beds, or the 96 beds which, as I said, will deliver 48 beds, while very welcome, will take a couple of years to come, so I want to know what is happening in the here and now. What support does the HSE need from the Government to make an immediate impact on this issue? Do the witnesses think the appropriate level of care can consistently be delivered to those being treated in such conditions?