Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 19 January 2023

Committee on Public Petitions

Public Petition on St. Brigid’s Hospital, Carrick-on-Suir: Save St. Brigid’s Action Group

Photo of Gerard CraughwellGerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. I note that there are public representatives and members of the community here today. That is indicative of what we are talking about here. In fairness, Ms Mullins mentioned the word "community". It is a community resource and is one that is clearly loved by the people in the area. That is the emotional side of it. Then we have to look at what exactly is happening here. We need to bring this message across to organisations like the HSE. A decision has been taken behind closed doors without reference to local representatives and without reference to local Deputies and county councillors specifically because they are the people at the coalface. The first action taken is to strip everything out as quickly as possible to make it extremely difficult to reverse the decision. That appears to be what has happened in this particular case. Ms Mullins spoke about palliative care and I could see the emotion in her when she did because obviously she has been there with somebody. All of us in this room at some stage have faced into a situation where we had a loved one who was dying. To be able to go into a centre where people are allowed to have their dignity but also allowed to have their family in those final days and hours is so important. The decision that the witnesses are looking for - correct me if I am wrong - is to restore the respect to their community and the right of those citizens in that community to die with the comfort of having their families and loved ones with them.

Mr. Torpey spoke about respite or step-down. He quite rightly pointed out that there are trolleys in every hospital in the country. It is nothing new. I had my appendix taken out when I was ten years of age and I was sitting in a bed in the middle of a long ward in the regional hospital in Galway while there were beds in the corridors. We have had a trolley crisis and a bed crisis forever. What would happen if this hospital was open in the morning and somebody from Carrick had surgery in Ardkeen and needed the extra couple of weeks? Mr. Torpey said he accepted it would not take the full 16 anymore. How many people does he think could be accommodated there?

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